City Rezones Cinema Land for Bookstore
It looks like curtains for the Edwards Mesa Cinema.
A tentative redevelopment deal with Borders Books cleared another hurdle Monday when the City Council agreed to rezone municipally owned land at Newport Boulevard and 19th Street for construction of a bookstore and cafe.
The land includes the theater, which shows second-run movies at discounted prices, but architects for Borders said they could not incorporate the cinema into its plans for a 25,200-square-foot store. Architects did, however, suggest a mural of the theater somewhere on the property to remind customers what the area looked like before redevelopment.
Bill Turpit, a downtown-area resident and head of Families Costa Mesa, told the council he would like the cinema to survive. “It creates a sense of place.”
Construction of the bookstore, which would open across from competitor Barnes & Noble at Triangle Square, should start in January with an opening in July.
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