posted 01-15-2008 12:09 AM                    

quote: Chris Slycord

---

Apparently the Cinemark Tinseltown in the Westchase neighborhood of Houston is closed down. I only knew of the place by driving by it a couple times but a neighbor said they went to see a movie and they had fencing behind the place; calling up the phone number I found online gave me a message that it was disconnected.

---

posted 01-17-2008 02:11 PM                       

quote:

---

Restaurant, movie complex make way for office buildings
Houston Business Journal

A contract is in the works for real estate developer Simmons Vedder & Co. to purchase Willie G's Seafood & Steak House and the Cinemark Tinseltown Westchase.

The sites of both the restaurant at 1605 Post Oak, and theater complex at the Beltway and Richmond, will be cleared for construction of office buildings.

Willie G's, owned by Landry's Restaurants Inc., will upon termination of its lease move to another location and continue operating, according to Landry's executive vice president Steve Scheinthal.

Simmons Vedder is expected to redevelop the 1.9-acre tract into a 320,000-square-foot office building.

Cinemark Westchase will continue operating until the final curtain call at the end of the year. Demolition is scheduled for the first quarter of 2008. The 21-acre site is expected to be redeveloped into a project called Westchase Park, two six-story, 275,000-square-foot office buildings schedule for completion in the second quarter of 2009.

Jeff Hayes of NewQuest Properties is representing Cinemark in the sale and Steve Mahood of Moody Rambin Interests Inc. is representing Simmons Vedder.

The acquisitions are in response to high occupancy in Houston office buildings overall. At the end of the second quarter, the occupancy rate for Class A office space was 92 percent, according to research by O'Connor & Associates.

---

posted 01-19-2008 10:44 PM                    

quote:

---

Hickory Hills Theater closes

By Tom Smith
Senior Staff Writer

FLORENCE - Following the end of the of business Thursday night, the Hickory Hills Cinema closed for operation.

The facility, which is owned by Carmike Theaters of Columbia, Ga., was the Shoals’ first theater complex to feature more than two screens.

“It was a big deal when it opened, I remember everyone was excited because it had four screens with multiple movie selections,” said Debbie Wilson, Florence-Lauderdale Tourism director.

She said before the Hickory Hills Cinema, which opened with three screens and later expanded to six, the only multi-screen theaters in the area were the Capri Twin in Florence and the Cinema Twin in Muscle Shoals.

Dale Hurst, director of marketing for Carmike Theaters, said a decline in attendance was a contributing factor in the decision to close the facility.

“Do to fallen attendance, we were not able to operate the theater successfully,” Hurst said Friday afternoon. “With great sadness, we were forced to make this decision.”

Florence Mayor Bobby Irons said the theater complex, located on Florence Boulevard across from the entrance to Hickory Hills Subdivision, was a part of the city’s history.

“We hate to see it closed because it fulfilled a need in our community for so long,” said Irons. “But we’re very proud of the new theater which is still serving our community.”

Carmike Theaters also owns the Regency 12, which is behind Regency Square Mall and opened in November 2004.

---

posted 01-25-2008 03:50 PM                       

quote:

---

“Do to fallen attendance

---

posted 01-25-2008 07:08 PM                    

quote: newspaper article

---

By Tom Smith, Senior Staff Writer

---

quote: Mike Blakesley

---

PLEASE tell me that a senior staff writer for a real newspaper didn't write that.

---

Maybe Tom Smith is a pseudonym for Ron Funderburg...or Frank Dubrois.

posted 01-26-2008 01:41 PM                       

quote:

---

MOVIES

Regal Mayfield theater closing

The local movie scene is losing 10 screens. Regal Cinemas Mayfield Heights 10 was set to close after its final screenings Thursday night. The theater, in the back of Eastgate Plaza at SOM Center and Mayfield roads, opened in 1996. Russ Nunley, vice president for marketing and communications for the Regal Entertainment Group in Knoxville, Tenn., confirmed the closing Thursday but would not say why, how many people are employed there, or if the employees would be offered jobs at other Regal theaters.

"We really don't have any additional comments or information," he said. Employees at the theater said they were not aware of the closing. "Nothing surprises me in this business," said Jon Forman, president of the rival Cleveland Cinemas. "There is a sense that that zone is over-screened. You've got 20 screens at Richmond, 14 at Severance, and 16 at our theater in Solon. So you have all that in a five- to seven-mile radius in a Greater Cleveland area that is not experiencing population growth." Regal recently acquired Richmond Town Square 20 in Richmond Heights from AMC. With the Mayfield closing, Regal will have 128 screens at eight theaters in Greater Cleveland. Regal operates more than 6,300 screens nationwide at 540 theaters.

---

posted 01-26-2008 05:10 PM                    

quote:

---

January 26, 2008

Theater's life cycle syncs closely with area's

By Rick Harmon
Montgomery Advertiser

The Christmas season makes many nostalgic about movie theaters.

You wouldn't expect the Wynnsong 10 to be one of those cinemas.

You might get nostalgic about the Clover (what's now the Capri), which not only had old-fashioned serials before its kiddie matinees, but would let you in free if you could find a four-leaf clover in the patches growing in front of the theater.

You might even wax sentimental over the old Empire, pretty much the only theater in Montgomery that would show the best kung-fu flicks, including "Enter the Dragon."

But seven or eight years ago, I would have bet you a movie theater popcorn and 48-ounce drink (which if you've been to a movie theatre you realize is a pretty expensive bet) that I'd never mourn the loss of the Wynnsong 10.

Still, that's what I found myself doing as I drove through the sparsely occupied parking lot of the Montgomery Towne Center, while doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, and saw the Wynnsong 10 standing there like an old, abandoned, once-loved toy.

Part of the nostalgia was for the theater that had changed; part was for the area that has changed around it.

When the theater opened a little more than a decade ago in July 1997, it appeared that both it and the area would flourish.

Wynnsong 10 was the city's top-of-the-line multiplex. More than 8,000 area moviegoers turned out that first weekend to watch films such as "Air Force One," "Hercules," and "Men in Black."

And there were rumors that the theater was only the beginning. Some of the top restaurant chains in the country were coming to the area, as were other new stores -- and all of this was just across the street from a thriving Montgomery Mall.

That was about a decade ago. Since then, those dreams have dimmed as surely as the Wynnsong 10's screens.

If you went to the Wynnsong 10 any time during the past few years, you knew things weren't going well. Crowds were usually slim. It wasn't rare for a family movie outing to resemble a private screening.

Surprisingly, the theater's lack of popularity only made it more popular with me. I liked the fact you could show up shortly before the show and know the movie you wanted to see wouldn't be sold out. That movie dialogue didn't have to compete with the dialogues of teenagers sitting around you. The lines were short. Prices were cheap (about $4 for the first matinee), and I liked their popcorn better than most of the more popular theaters.

Even more surprisingly, the theater I once disliked for being Montgomery's mega-monopoly movie house had actually begun to resemble a mom-and-pop theater.

There were so few customers that it was easy to get to know the people working there, and they were good people. There were problems sometimes, but you tended to be forgiving because the employees were almost always friendly and usually helpful.

The movie theater closing its doors means that people who live in my neighborhood -- around Old Farm Road and Warrenton in what is now called Montgomery Midtown -- have a long drive to go to any of the commercial theaters.

But the closing has a more severe effect than us having to drive a lot longer and having to spend a little more for movies.

It's another huge blow to the area near the intersection of Troy Highway and East Boulevard. It's an area that has already seen the deterioration of Montgomery Mall and the closing of numerous stores, many of which have moved farther east.

In the Towne Center, The Macaroni Grill closed Feb. 28. Circuit City has announced plans to close there early next year when it relocates to the EastChase Market Center. Old Navy also plans to open a store at EastChase, although it has not announced whether it intends to close its Towne Center store.

Next door, the once flourishing Montgomery Commons has also closed several businesses over the past five years, and will lose at least one more. Restaurants such as Tony Roma's, TGI Friday's and Copeland's of New Orleans have all closed. Michael's has announced it will close its location there when it opens an EastChase store.

Many of my friends just shake their heads and say "everything's moving east," but that's not really true. Dozens of new businesses have actually come west, off of Zelda and Ann Street. So why are businesses seemingly moving east and west, but away from Troy Highway and East Boulevard?

It's a question many in the area hope someone can answer, and quickly. Local government has talked about bringing new businesses and about bringing businesses to blighted areas of the city. But another goal needs to be to work with businesses to keep an area from becoming blighted.

Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright has often said he has hopes the area around Montgomery Mall can return to its former glory. He points toward the fact that many of the city's wealthiest residents live within only a few miles of it.

As I take the 15-minute drive by the shut-down Wynnsong 10 to go to the movies at The Rave, I will hope he is right. I will also hope there will be some place in that area to go Christmas shopping next year.

Now, Christmas has past. Most are turning their attention to the new year and to the future. But looking at the ever growing number of closed stores near the Montgomery Mall area, I wonder how much of a future it has, and like many who live near there, I worry that nostalgia may be all that the area will have.

Rick Harmon is the state/business editor of the Montgomery Advertiser.

Subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser

---