O.C. to Get Huge Movie Complex

A 24-screen movie complex--among the largest in the nation--will be built near Lake Forest in southern Orange County and open next October, AMC Theaters announced Wednesday.

The multiscreen structure and an adjoining “retail promenade” will be part of the huge new Foothill Ranch Towne Centre retail complex, where such retailing giants as Wal-Mart, Mervyns, Target and HomeBase already have stores under construction.

Part of a retailing and entertainment surge in much of south Orange County, the shopping center is at Bake Parkway and the new Foothill tollway in the Foothill Ranch housing development east of the Santa Ana Freeway.

The AMC venture is only six miles from an Edwards Theatre 18-screen center planned to open in 1995 just north of the El Toro Y--where the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways merge.

“We see a lot of future growth in South Orange County and we think that mirrors what has happened in other parts of the county,” said Greg Rutkowski, vice president of West Coast operations for the Kansas City-based AMC.

Rutkowski said the theater, expected to cost “more than $20 million,” will show both art and foreign films as well as mainstream films. He said there are no plans yet for specialty “virtual-reality” theaters, where customers feel as if they are part of the action.

AMC Theaters is the nation’s second-largest theater circuit, with 1,633 screens in 244 theaters nationwide but only three movie houses in Orange County. The proposed complex apparently won’t be the only one of its kind. AMC is building a similar complex in Dallas, and another company is building a 24-screen multiplex in St. Petersburg, Fla.

News of AMC’s 24-screen theater comes on the heels of recently announced plans by other companies to grab a chunk of the leisure-time spending expected in a growing part of the county. Developers have proposed plans for two family miniature golf-fun parks in Irvine, six play parks for kids and several “virtual-reality” video centers.

James Edwards Sr., chairman of Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc., Orange County’s largest chain of movie theaters, said he was not concerned about the competition among movie theaters, though the AMC complex is scheduled to open before his $20-million project. The Edwards complex will be in the Irvine Spectrum, where the Irvine Co. plans to build a retail shopping mall.

“It will be busy in South Orange County,” he said.

Officials of Foothill Ranch Towne Centre, designed as what developers call “a power center” of major stores to draw customers regionwide, believe there is room for the AMC complex, especially in an area they believe will be as much a magnet as the El Toro Y.

“Sure, the demographics in South Orange County can support 24 new screens,” said Dougall Agan, Towne Centre’s spokesman.

But others aren’t so sure that the area can handle all this leisure-time activity.

“There just aren’t enough houses and people out there to support 24 screens,” said Walter Hahn, a real estate consultant for the Kenneth Leventhal accounting firm in Newport Beach. “It sounds to me like south Orange County will be oversupplied with theaters.”

Hahn said he saw the move as a “turf battle,” an attempt by AMC to establish a South County presence.

“Maybe they’ll knock the prices down,” he said.

Edwards, Agan and Rutkowski already are getting the competitive juices flowing.

“They’ll beat us on opening, but I think ours will be a magnificent theater,” Edwards said. “Our screens will be quite large. I think we’ve got a better location. The El Toro Y is the busiest intersection in the world.”

Agan said he believes the Foothill location is better because the 113-acre Towne Centre already has attracted such “power center” tenants as Wal-Mart, HomeBase, Mervyns and Ralphs Market. The center will feed off 3,900 housing units planned for the Foothill Ranch community, as well as neighboring communities such as Rancho Santa Margarita and Coto de Caza.

“We will have a mass of retail in place which will attract people who plan to come shop there,” Agan said. “We’re not targeting people traveling on a major thoroughfare who are just trying to get somewhere else.”

AMC’s adjoining retail promenade will be designed in the mode of the Italian Renaissance, with a plaza like Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy. It will have fountains, open space and ivy. Developers compared it to the CityWalk promenade at Universal Studios Hollywood, but with a Venetian theme.

“We don’t really have a town in south Orange County in our area, so we’re trying to create a place where people can come to dinner and then walk around,” Agan said.