A New Year, a New Wave of Fun

This will be the year Southern Californians can view a new version of the future from Disney, walk among sharks at a world-class aquarium, ride a high-wire bicycle without fear of falling and dance again to big-band music at classy nightclubs, including one that was a hangout for spies during World War II.

It will be the year a Russian submarine docks in Long Beach as a tourist attraction, the Getty Center offers an array of performing arts events and the California Museum of Science and Industry reinvents itself with a new exhibit and a new name.

On the heels of the billion-dollar Getty, entertainment venues that will be unveiled in 1998 will include dozens of others built at a collective cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Among these are a host of combination entertainment and shopping centers, known as urban and suburban entertainment centers, that will make 1998 one of the biggest years yet for new shoppertainment attractions.

This is one of the biggest years in recent memory in terms of new attractions opening in Southern California, says Carol Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau.

According to Martinez, the Convention and Visitors Bureau each year looks for new attractions to help it lure first-time visitors and others. She said one of the toughest jobs in recent years has been wooing back former visitors.

“Now we can say to them honestly that, if they haven’t been here lately, they haven’t seen everything we have to offer,” Martinez said. While big attractions have opened in recent years, including the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios in 1996, Martinez could recall no recent year that offered such a variety of impressive new attractions.

Among them will be Disney’s new vision of the future, which will be unveiled in the spring when Disneyland opens an all-new Tomorrowland. The revamping, designed to keep Tomorrowland a step ahead of the present, includes a new rocket car ride, an astro-orbiter where visitors can pilot themselves through simulated space and a “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” show.

Delayed but still on the way is the $23-million Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. Construction began in October, and the opening of the 55,000-square-foot facility, slated to have more than 100 science-related exhibits, including a flight simulator, a climbing wall and a build-it-yourself robot, is now projected for fall.

Another all-new venue this year will be the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, billed as “the first world-class aquarium to be developed in Southern California.” The aquarium’s 157,000 square feet of exhibits will include an underwater tunnel where visitors can walk among sharks, a tank where they can swim with (presumably non-lethal) fish and a Kid’s Cove.

The Getty Center will offer a broad spectrum of events and performances throughout the year, from outdoor family festivals, to Friday nights designed for young adults, to free live performances by some of the Southland’s most accomplished musicians.

Other venues slated to open during the year range from a planned but not formally announced ride at Magic Mountain to a magic theater in Santa Monica to at least two nightclubs specializing in big-band music. Among these is the Sky Room, atop the former Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, a place once rumored to be a hangout for the cloak-and-dagger crowd.

The former California Museum of Science and Industry, revamped and renamed the California Science Center, opens in February with a 3-D Imax theater and all new exhibits. Among these will be a high-wire bicycle; visitors can learn some laws of physics firsthand by pedaling across a guide wire four stories above the floor. (The bicycle is rigged with a counterweight to keep the rider from flipping and a harness, and there’s a safety net below.)

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It wouldn’t be a new year in Southern California without new movie theaters. Scores, if not hundreds, will open across Southern California at new and existing shopping centers and at stand-alone multiplexes.

The biggest figures to be AMC’s 30-screen multiplex at the $165-million City Mills mall in Orange, under construction on the old site of The City shopping center. This will supplant AMC’s six-screen theater that was demolished recently across town at the Mall of Orange to make way for expansion with a Wal-Mart and other new stores.

The multiplex phenomenon contines a trend that has added hundreds of new screens in recent years and helped to create buzz phrases such “urban entertainment centers” and “suburban entertainment centers.”

Developers, on the theory that shopping and entertainment go together like movies and popcorn, have built a spate of centers combining shops, movie theaters and entertainment-oriented restaurants. Perhaps the epitome of these is Dave & Buster’s, opening soon in the Irvine Spectrum, where customers can eat and be entertained by video games, billiards and various other amusements.

The wave of new theaters and entertainment-oriented shopping centers raises the obvious question: How many are too many?

“ ‘When will the market become saturated’ is a good question. Unfortunately, it seems we always have to cross the line before we know we’ve crossed it,” said John Ecklein, publisher of the Novato-based newsletter Entertainment Real Estate Report.

Ecklein said the concept of entertainment-oriented shopping centers is only a few years old, but the centers are sprouting so fast throughout Southern California and the rest of the United States that tracking them is a full-time job. He knows of 35 that are open or planned in Southern California, but those could be “just the tip of the iceberg” if developers keep announcing centers at their current pace, he said.

“Southern California will probably be one of the first places to let us know when we’ve seen too many of these,” Ecklein said.

Asking how many entertainment shopping centers are too many is “sort of like asking when there will be too many restaurants,” said Paul Jacob, vice president of RTKL Associates Inc., an architectural and planning firm that has worked on the Irvine Spectrum and Valencia Town Center, among others.

Jacob said the three basic components of such a center are well-known: entertainment, restaurants and retail shops. But the success or failure of the centers is determined by what kind of entertainment, restaurants and shops.

“As we go forward, it just can’t be another 24-plex,” he said. “There have to be some other components, such as an Imax theater or some other entertainment showpiece. And it can’t be just restaurants. You have to plan the demographics of the restaurants and who would go to them.”

Jacob said the urban and suburban entertainment centers that succeed will be those that develop “a sense of place.” But achieving that distinction will be more difficult as more centers are built because “it will be harder to create a center that doesn’t look like the one across town.”

According to Doug Brown, managing partner of the Beverly Hills-based development firm Regent Properties, urban entertainment centers can’t be created by plunking down a bunch of shops and movie theaters wherever a developer finds vacant land.

“It’s still a question of real estate as much as entertainment,” Brown said. “You know: location, location, location.”

Brown said Regent believes in attempting urban entertainment centers “only at places where you have some of the biggest intersections in town.” Two examples would be City Mills, near the Orange Crush confluence of the Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Orange freeways, and the Irvine Spectrum, at the junction of the Santa Ana, San Diego and Laguna freeways.

Newsletter publisher Ecklein has a theory about why entertainment-oriented shopping centers are proliferating and why the timing could be propitious for pure entertainment venues and attractions such as Tomorrowland, the Long Beach aquarium, nightclubs and the like.

“Part of it is that entertainment has become the saving grace for retail centers, many of which were suffering until the entertainment concept came along,” he said.

Another part is that the acquisitive 1980s have given way to a 1990s in which “people are less concerned about the stuff they have and more concerned with finding experiences they can enjoy,” Ecklein says. He said the 1980s era of “cocooning,” in which so many consumers supposedly preferred to stay home and bond with their possessions, has given way to an old-fashioned desire to go someplace and be entertained.

Also contributing to this report was correspondent Lisa Addison.

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What’s Coming in ‘98:

FAMILY ATTRACTIONS

New Tomorrowland at Disneyland. Coming in spring will be a total renovation of Tomorrowland, one of the Anaheim park’s eight themed lands. It will feature a 3-D ride on rocket cars of the future “at speeds exceeding those of most roller coasters,” an interactive technology pavilion, all-new design and landscaping, and a new Astro Orbitor at the entrance, where guests can pilot their own spaceships through a simulated cosmos. Other new features will include a new “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” show, plus a redesign of building facades and landscaping “to resemble a classic future environment inspired by the vision of futurists like Jules Verne.” (714) 781-4448.

Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana is now targeted to open this fall. The 55,000-square-foot facility will house more than 100 interactive exhibits, including a mini tornado that kids can walk through, an earthquake simulator and a bed of nails. The center, which developers said will cost $23 million, will also feature a computer lab, educational programs and field trips. Visitors shouldn’t have any trouble locating the finished center at 2500 N. Main St.--the building will be topped by a colorful 100-foot-tall rotating cube. (714) 540-2001.

The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific at Aquarium Road and Shoreline Drive is scheduled to open in June and is being billed as “the first world-class aquarium to be developed in Southern California.” The 157,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor exhibits will include a “Kids Cove,” a sort of aquatic version of a children’s zoo, along with an underwater tunnel where visitors can stroll among the sharks, a tank where visitors can swim with the fish, one of the world’s largest coral reef exhibits and a walkway through a surging channel of water at the base of a glacier. The $117-million aquarium, available after hours for private functions and special events, is part of Queensway Bay, a 300-acre project along the waterfront that will include a number of other entertainment venues and retail shops to be developed at the site in 1998 and in coming years. (562) 570-6623.

Rainbow Harbor. Scheduled to open adjacent to and at just about the same time as the Aquarium of the Pacific, the $40-million Rainbow Harbor project will be a combination tourist attraction and shopping center. The harbor will feature historic ships that visitors can tour, dinner cruises, whale-watching tours, harbor tours, para-sailing, dive boats and fishing charters. (562) 570-6623.

Former Russian submarine Scorpion. This former Soviet sub and Cold War artifact, decommissioned in 1994, is scheduled to dock in June as a tourist attraction next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Scorpion was the Soviet code name for the Foxtrot-class craft formally known as the Povodnaya Lodka B-427. An Australian group bought it after it was decommissioned and moved it to Sydney, where it has been on display for two years. It is scheduled to remain in Long Beach for up to five years. (562) 435-3511.

California Science Center. The former California Museum of Science and Industry has reinvented, expanded and renamed itself with a whole new set of exhibits, including a new Imax 3-D theater, scheduled to open in February, and a high-wire bicycle where visitors can pedal across a guide wire four stories above the floor. The bicycle is rigged with a counterweight to keep the rider from flipping over, and there is a harness for the rider and a safety net below. The new exhibits, which are the first of three planned phases, represent a $130-million investment of private and public funds. Numerous features and exhibits have been added, and Exposition Park has been revitalized for picnics, sports and other gatherings. (213) 744-7400.

Club Disney. The second of Disney’s new “family play sites” for children and their parents is scheduled to open Jan. 10 at 1581 Eastland Center Drive in West Covina. (The first Club Disney opened last year in Thousand Oaks.) Guests can dress up as their favorite Disney characters at Fantasy Fashion Show, romp at a Pooh ‘N You attraction, create their own characters in a Character Creations art studio, munch Disney-themed food at the Club Cafe and shop at the Clubhouse Shop retail store. (909) 272-1888. Recorded club information: (626) 938-1480; party reservations at 1-888-CLUB-DIS.

URBAN CENTERS

City Mills, Orange. This latest Southern California entry from the Mills Corp., developer of the enormous Ontario Mills shopping center, is scheduled to open in the fall at the site of the former the City shopping center. The $165-million center will include up to 12 anchor stores and 100 specialty stores as well as “high-energy entertainment/dining and family-oriented community events, with more entertainment venues than Mills Corp.’s traditional centers like Ontario Mills.” Among the entertainment offerings will be a 30-screen AMC Theatres multiplex. (714) 753-1111.

Park Plaza, Aliso Viejo. A 21-screen Edwards Theatre multiplex is scheduled to open in March at Park Plaza, a retail/entertainment center in the Aliso Viejo Town Center. The 360,000-square-foot center currently has a Petsmart, Barnes & Noble and Staples. It also has three restaurants: On the Border, Chili’s and Macaroni Grill. Information: Mission Viejo Co., (714) 837-6050.

Kaleidoscope. Scheduled to open this summer at Interstate 5 and Crown Valley Parkway in Mission Viejo, the $55-million Kaleidoscope center is described by developers as a “lifestyle/entertainment center” that will offer community events and special performances in addition to an Edwards Stadium Cinemas 10-screen theater, European-style market, restaurants and specialty shops in a 215,000-square-foot center. (714) 720-8407.

Irvine Spectrum Entertainment Center, Phase II. The second phase of the Irvine Spectrum’s popular entertainment center at the confluence of the Santa Ana, San Diego and Laguna freeways is expected to open in July. It will double the size of the entertainment and shopping area to about 500,000 square feet. The center already includes a 21-screen Edwards theater complex that features a 3-D Imax theater. New additions will include a Dave & Buster’s, a 30-something-oriented place for eating, billiards and the second West Coast site opened by the national chain. (Its first was at Ontario Mills.) Designed to keep customers entertained while they’re eating and vice versa, it bills itself as an “Eatertainment” venue the size of a football field. (714) 789-9180 or (714) 753-1111.

Long Beach Towne Center. This new center at Carson Street near the 605 Freeway is a $70-million shopping and entertainment complex on the 82-acre former site of the Long Beach Navy Hospital. Scheduled to open in the fall, it will include a 26-screen Edwards Cinemas complex with 5,000 stadium-style seats, plus nearly a million square feet of shopping space including big-box retailers like Sam’s Club and Staples and other stores and shops. Information: City of Long Beach, (562) 570-6782.

Glendale Marketplace. A new, two-story development scheduled to open in the spring adjacent to the Glendale Galleria on Brand Boulevard at Broadway, Glendale Marketplace will be a $50-million retail and theater complex in a setting reminiscent of a European shopping village. The project will include the WOW! multimedia store (a joint venture of the good guys! and Tower Records) and a Mann Theater multiplex. Other tenants will include numerous upscale retail shops, restaurants, kiosks and street-side activities. (818) 706-1840.

Northridge Fashion Center. A 10-screen Pacific Theatres complex, several new restaurants and a Borders Books megastore scheduled to open in July at this existing shopping center represent one of the best examples of how shopping malls are trying to reinvent themselves as entertainment-oriented destinations. (818) 885-9700.

The Plant, Van Nuys. This new shopping and entertainment center is scheduled to open this summer on a 35-acre portion of the former General Motors auto assembly plant. It will include a Mann Theaters 16-screen multiplex, Home Depot, Babies R Us, restaurants and other retailers. (714) 720-8407.

Town Center, Valencia. A 12-screen multiplex and an Imax 3-D theater are scheduled to open in the fall at the $100-million Town Center Drive, a half-mile-long pedestrian-oriented center next to the Valencia Town Center regional mall. The theaters will be part of a 100,000-square-foot entertainment and shopping center. Information: Newhall Land and Farming Co., (805) 255-4247.

LIVE THEATER

The Loretta Theater, which will include a 99-seat and a 65-seat theater at 2437 Main St. in Santa Monica, is scheduled to open in late July. The theater will be housed in a Frank Gehry-designed building in the city’s Ocean Park district. The board of directors includes playwright Beth Henley, who received the Pulitzer Prize in drama and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best American play for “Crimes of the Heart,” as well as Ed Harris, Holly Hunter and Amy Madigan. (310) 399-5929.

Magicopolis Theater. Former magician Steve Spill and marketing executive Marvin Melaten plan to open their City of Magic at 1418 4th St. on the Promenade in Santa Monica this summer. Spill says Magicopolis will include two theaters, a smaller room for “close-up sleight-of-hand” and a larger stage for “floating ladies” and other tricks performed on a grander scale. (310) 305-0336.

PERFORMING ARTS

Royce Hall at UCLA campus. Another cultural victim of the Northridge earthquake, a repaired and refurbished Royce Hall will reopen April 4 with a program honoring Ginny Mancini, Lew Wasserman, Harold Williams and John Wooden. Performers at the reopening program will include Carol Burnett, James Galway, John Lithgow and Paul Reiser, among others. The reopening program also will be designed to focus attention on the arts at UCLA and raise funds for the arts at the university. It will include highlights of the history of the Romanesque Royce Hall, which was built in 1929 as one of the first campus structures and has hosted some of the world’s foremost performing artists over the years. (310) 794-8952.

Herbert S. Zipper Concert Hall. The new Colburn School of Performing Arts, 200 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles (next to MOCA), plans to open a 416-seat concert hall this summer. The Herbert S. Zipper Concert Hall will feature acoustics especially designed for solo recitals, chamber orchestras and other performances intended for more intimate settings. (213) 743-2306.

The Getty Center. L.A.’s new $1-billion cultural center will present a series of events under different headings. The first of six outdoor family festivals, produced by Community Arts Resources, is scheduled for Feb. 28-29. Each festival will include performances and workshops designed to reflect the breadth of the Los Angeles artistic community. “Friday Nights at the Getty,” beginning Feb. 6, are planned as a way for young adults to sample the best of L.A.’s music, dance, theater--and for discussions, lectures and film screenings, along with a chance to view the new galleries. The center will offer live performances, some in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium, others outdoors. The first year will include the “Sounds of L.A.” series of free concerts featuring local music masters. A summer series in the Museum Courtyard will complement the opening of the exhibition “Beyond Beauty,” and other performances will be presented in collaboration with other programs of the Getty Trust. (310) 440-6616.

MOVIE THEATERS

Rialto Theatre, South Pasadena. Operators of this venerable Spanish Baroque-style movie house say it can’t survive financially as a one-screen theater, so they plan to convert it into a five-screen theater complex, pending project approval from city officials. No date has been set for the opening. (310) 312-2323.

Laemmle Theatres, Pasadena. The small Laemmle chain plans to open a seven-screen, 1,200-seat complex, plus an adjacent restaurant and coffeehouse on Thanksgiving Day near the city’s playhouse district. The theaters will specialize in art films and foreign films in a setting much like Laemmle’s Sunset-5 complex in West Hollywood. (310)-478-1041.

Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood. The

American Cinematheque, a nonprofit film exhibition and cultural group that currently screens films at Raleigh Studios and other L.A. venues, is scheduled to open its permanent home in the fall after completing renovations at the historic Egyptian Theatre, once owned by theater impresario Sid Grauman and the first film theater on Hollywood Boulevard when it was opened in 1922. The Cinematheque presents weekly screenings of films, ranging from classics to the avant-garde, including rare works and special prints, along with discussions by filmmakers and critics. Upon the opening of its permanent home, the Cinematheque will offer daily, year-round programming for residents and tourists. (213) 466-3456.

CLUBS, RESTAURANTS

The Sky Room. This storied nightclub atop the former Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, a reputed hangout for spies, celebrities and military personnel during World War II, is scheduled to reopen in January, “refurbished to its original Art Deco splendor.” The new Sky Room will feature fine cuisine and big-band dancing to live music, sans spies. Information: Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, (562) 436-3645.

The Coconut Club. Merv Griffin’s Beverly Hilton will open its Coconut Club Jan. 16 with the big-band music of Jack Sheldon and will follow it every weekend with ballroom dancing in “a glamorous nightclub setting reminiscent of the old Mocambo, Ciro’s and especially the Coconut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel.” It is described as a “surreal tropical setting” with tables, banquettes, romantic oversized private booths, a cigar room, a VIP area and a private canopied entrance for limousine drop-off. Entertainer Griffin, in a promotional piece on the club, promises a return to “the great supper clubs of yesteryear.” (310) 285-1358.