Edwards Previews IMAX Plans for L.A. Airport Area

In a major expansion out of its Orange County base, Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc. announced plans Monday for its first project in Los Angeles and said it will build 10 new IMAX 3D theaters throughout the country.

Edwards will own and operate a 500-seat IMAX theater and 22 motion picture screens at the Howard Hughes Entertainment Center, an entertainment, restaurant and retailing complex to be built beside the San Diego Freeway in Westchester.

The company said it also plans IMAX theaters for Fresno and Houston. Other locations have not been announced.

The new 3D theaters would make Newport Beach-based Edwards the single largest operator of venues using technology licensed from Toronto-based IMAX Corp. Edwards already operates IMAX theaters in Irvine and Ontario, and had previously announced plans to build another in Valencia.

The firm recently began a major expansion outside Orange County, where it controls six of every 10 motion picture screens. It currently operates at 89 locations, with 531 screens throughout the state and in Idaho.

Edwards Theatres’ chief executive, James Edwards III, who took control of the 67-year-old family business after the death of his father in April, acknowledged the risk in such an aggressive expansion. But the IMAX deal “brings a new dimension to the company, and a new dynamic to the entertainment experience,” he said.

The Howard Hughes site, which he has coveted for years, fills a “hole in the market” on Los Angeles’ Westside. And an IMAX theater will bring in new customers who want a different kind of moviegoing experience, he contended.

The 250,000-square-foot Howard Hughes Entertainment Center is being developed by Los Angeles-based J.H. Snyder Co. Managing general partner Jerry Snyder said he began negotiating with Howard Hughes Corp. to purchase the land about two years ago.

“It’s a great place for an entertainment center,” he said. “In short, there’s a lot of people there.” What’s more, he said, the scarcity of available land has limited the ability of developers to do similar projects in Los Angeles.

Snyder, who developed the Water Garden office project in Santa Monica and Wilshire Courtyard in the Miracle Mile, said the $70-million Hughes project will have a 1940s Art Deco and avionics motif. Ground will be broken early next year, and the project is expected to be completed in the spring of 1999.

Though no deals have been signed with retailers or restaurant chains, Snyder said he is negotiating with the Gap, and Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores. The crucial element, he said, was the IMAX theater, which he hopes will lure customers from a wide radius. The only other IMAX in Los Angeles is at the California Museum of Science and Industry at Exposition Park.

“It’s a bold move, but it could be successful,” said John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations, a Los Angeles firm that tracks box office receipts. “That’s a good location,” he said, adding that the nearest multiscreen complexes are in Culver City and Marina del Rey.

But Krier said he wonders when the trend of building megaplexes will end. He is already seeing evidence that they have begun to cannibalize each other’s business. A new entertainment center “doesn’t always create entirely new business,” he said. “That’s one of the questions this raises.”

Daniel Wheatcroft, chief executive of the National Assn. of Theater Owners of California and Nevada, said Edwards Theatres’ involvement gives the project credibility. “They’re experienced theater operators,” he said. “They’ve been quite successful, there’s no doubt. They’ve probably done their homework.”