Edwards Theatres to Build Major Complex Near LAX

Saying the self-proclaimed “entertainment capital of the world” doesn’t have enough movie theaters of its own, a developer and theater operator on Monday unveiled plans for an entertainment complex on Los Angeles’ Westside.

The Howard Hughes Entertainment Complex will be anchored by an IMAX 3-D theater and a 22-screen mega-plex, to be owned and operated by Newport Beach-based Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc. The 250,000-square-foot center, to be built adjacent to the San Diego Freeway between Sepulveda Boulevard and Howard Hughes Parkway in Westchester, will also include stores and restaurants.

Jerry Snyder, managing general partner of developer J.H. Snyder Co. in Los Angeles, 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 Howard 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’s negotiating with the Gap, and Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores. The crucial element, he said, was the 500-seat 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 in 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, with the nearest multiscreen complexes in Culver City and Marina del Rey.

But Krier wondered when the trend of building mega-plexes would end. He’s already seeing evidence that they’ve 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.”

The project is the first foray into Los Angeles for the 67-year-old Edwards Theatres chain. 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.

In addition to the Howard Hughes project, the company said it will build nine other IMAX theaters, making Edwards the single largest operator of the 3D theaters using technology licensed from Toronto-based IMAX Corp. Other locations will include Fresno and Houston. The other sites have not been announced. Edwards already operates IMAX theaters in Irvine and Ontario, and had previously announced plans to build another in Valencia.

Chief Executive James Edwards III, who took control of the family firm 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 craved for years, fills a “hole in the market” on the Westside, Edwards said. And an IMAX theater will bring in new customers from miles around, who want a different kind of moviegoing experience, he contended.