posted 10-18-2006 11:26 AM                       

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Former Memphis Drive-In site sold
American Greetings buys 20-acre property
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Janet H. Cho
Plain Dealer Reporter

American Greetings Corp. plans to turn the site of the former Memphis Drive-In into recreational green space for its employees.

The Brooklyn-based greeting card manufacturer said Tuesday that its Custom Holdings Inc. subsidiary bought the 20-acre property just north of its world headquarters for $3 million.

American Greetings said it plans to raze the movie screens and other aging structures on the site and "create a landscaped area, possibly with walking paths, to expand and enhance its corporate campus," according to a written statement.

"Our company's leadership is committed to make it a world-class environment for our employees" as well as a major draw for the talented people the company recruits from around the nation, said spokeswoman Laurie Henrichsen. "The green space will be a really nice addition to our corporate campus."

An as-yet-unnamed third party will develop master plans for the drive-in property, which is surrounded by land that American Greetings already owns. The company does not anticipate having final plans for the site for at least a year.

It also does not expect to expand its headquarters building onto the property.

"This purchase makes a statement that we intend to stay in Cleveland for years to come," Chief Executive Zev Weiss said in a written statement.

The Cuyahoga County auditor's office estimated the value of the property and building at $1.6 million, but Henrichsen said its fair value was $3 million. The company does not know if there were other bidders for the site.

The Memphis Drive-In, Cuyahoga County's last drive-in movie theater, closed Oct. 1 after more than 52 years.

Russell Wintner, who managed the site and was one of six partners who owned it, said "it was not an easy decision" to sell.

"The outpouring of sentiment from the community in favor of the drive-in was overwhelming. We got tons of e-mails and letters expressing sadness and sharing memories. My grandfather and his partners ended up creating a small Cleveland landmark which is now gone. It makes me proud of their accomplishment and sad to see it go. But things change, and life moves on.

"The price they offered for the land was very attractive, and the partnership was, in some cases, in its third generation," he said. "It was time.

Wintner's family still owns the 54-year-old Memphis Kiddie Park across the street, which was not part of the transaction.

American Greetings said it had offered to buy the property several times over the decades, but Wintner said it was never put up for sale. "It was an entirely unsolicited offer that came out of the blue in early summer," he said.

Henrichsen said the purchase is part of the company's overall effort to update its headquarters, which employs 2,000 people. The company cafeteria just reopened after a three-month renovation with new furniture, fireplaces and informal seating areas.

The company is also remodeling its corporate gift shop, installing a town-center-like gathering area and opening a Starbucks coffee shop inside the building this fall.

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posted 10-25-2006 04:16 PM                       

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The Big Picture movie theater to close

Low attendance led to shaky finances, owners say

By Maureen Wallenfang
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON — The Big Picture Theater of Adventure and Discovery will fade to black after its last screening Oct. 15.

The large format movie theater at 215 E. Washington St. will run its previously scheduled foreign film and a regular slate of movies through next week, but then will close.

Co-owners Jim and Michelle Bork made the announcement in an exclusive interview this afternoon with The Post-Crescent. The paper chose to not post the story on its Web site until late Friday to give the couple time to tell their staff of 13 employees.

The theater’s closure was because of finances, Jim Bork said.

“It’s basically not enough attendance to make it financially viable,” said Bork, who is president of Big Picture Concepts, the theater’s operating company. “We have no more resources to keep it going.”

He said they will file papers shortly to put the company into receivership and the building will be put up for sale.

“It was a dream of mine, and we had the opportunity to make that work for 18 months,” Bork said. “We think we’ve brought something valuable to the community. Our hope is that somehow in the future it will continue to be a resource to the community. But at this point, we need to let go of that dream.”

Founding partners Chuck and Donna Barnum still have an ownership interest, but previously gave up all management responsibilities.

The theater opened to the public March 19, 2005, and cost $5.1 million. At the outset, the top price was $8.50 for an adult ticket. It was later reduced to $7.50.

In an August Post-Crescent interview, Bork said attendance was less than half of the 200,000 to 250,000 they needed annually to meet financial obligations. If it had operated at 35 to 40 percent of capacity, it could cover costs.

By August, however, the theater was $4 million in debt. That included $1.6 million owed to the city of Appleton. The theater had made one partial payment of $74,724.46 on that debt. In its developer’s agreement, it was responsible for 14 annual installments of $118,400.

Today, Bork said those figures were accurate. He said they had not made any additional payments to the city since August, but the city had not foreclosed on the property.

A number of options could have bailed out the theater, including finding new investors or securing nonprofit status that would have allowed it to qualify for grants.

But none panned out.

“Not enough has happened for one of those options to be viable,” Bork said. “The money ran out before we could get any of those options in place.”

Moviegoers, meanwhile, were sad to hear the news.

“It was a good experience and we both wanted to go back,” said Hilbert resident Fred Smith, who attended last month’s Star Trek convention with his wife, Caroline, at The Big Picture.

It was their first visit to the large screen theater. “We saw the ‘The Wrath of Khan’ on the big screen and it was larger than life. The sound was a whole lot better than watching it on TV. It was an exciting experience.”

“That’s the way to see a film like that. It was fantastic,” said his daughter Shandra Smith, who lives in Appleton. “You see so much more detail.”

The local Wildwood Film Festival held its fifth annual event at The Big Picture in April.

“It’s a wonderful facility that was obviously underutilized,” said Tom Thorne, one of the festival’s three founders who had expected to hold the 2007 festival again at The Big Picture.

“Looking forward, we’ll find another facility in Appleton. The show will go on.”

Peter Hensler, the city’s economic development director, also expressed disappointment.

“It’s really a shame to have this not succeed,” he said. “We were all so optimistic about it at the outset.”

Hensler said the city made the investment in the property a decade ago, well before the theater was proposed, when it purchased the downtown land and relocated the industrial printer housed on the site.

After several developers’ proposals fell through for the location, the theater proposal came along.

“Our agreement was to allow them to acquire property that we owned. We deeded the land to the theater in exchange for a tax guarantee on the value of the property,” Hensler said.

“The next step for the city is to discuss with council members any action that may be appropriate, from our perspective, to best protect our interests.”

This afternoon, Bork defended his plan to go ahead with the announcement of the foreign film series, which ran on the front of the Post-Crescent’s Local & State section today, by saying they had been hopeful of a better outcome up until the last moment.

“We continued to want to have a solution,” he said, struggling to keep his strong emotions in check. “We needed to keep looking ahead and planning for the future. There’s never an ideal time to cut it off.”

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