Cinema Putting On the Ritz as Others Founder

A fancy 17-screen cinema is set to open this week at a new mall in Westchester, even as many theater operators across the country struggle to stay solvent and keep their doors open.

The Bridge, as the theater complex is known, is the creation of emerging media mogul Shari E. Redstone and the centerpiece of an entertainment and shopping complex called the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center, an office and retail development near the San Diego Freeway.

The Friday debut of the cinemas will be an unofficial grand opening for the 250,000-square-foot center, which looked for a while as if it might not have a movie house when Edwards Theatres of Newport Beach, formerly slated as the theater operator, declared bankruptcy.

But developer J.H. Snyder Co. lined up a new deal with a joint venture of two Dedham, Mass.-based companies--CineBridge Ventures and National Amusements--which promised to deliver one of L.A.’s most deluxe movie venues.

Among the attractions will be valet parking, stadium seating, a concierge, viewer lounges, upscale food and drink, live entertainment, premium and assigned seating and other extras designed to pamper moviegoers. Adult tickets will cost $9.75 on weekdays, $10.50 on weekends.

Two of the 17 theaters are plush “directors’ halls” where the seats are larger and more luxurious, and where ushers will escort patrons to their seats, said Redstone, chairwoman and chief executive of CineBridge and president of National Amusements.

Live entertainment will be staged before the movies and will vary according to the film fare, said Redstone, who is the daughter of Viacom Chairman and CEO Sumner M. Redstone. “It could be a short comedy routine if we’re showing a comedy, or it could be a children’s show before a children’s movie.”

The 4,200-seat venue is opening at a time when some theater chains are just emerging from bankruptcy, the economy is lagging, development of movie-anchored shopping centers has slowed considerably and retail sales growth is down sharply in California. Some experts say Southern California has too many movie screens and too much retail space.

But the theaters and retailers at the Promenade should prosper, thanks to a number of factors in their favor, according to Larry Kosmont of Los Angeles-based Kosmont Associates, a real estate consulting firm.

“Forget about the over-screening that has occurred in the movie theater business,” Kosmont said. “I think this center will do very well because the area that it serves hasn’t had new movie screens in years and in general the market is underserved by quality theaters.”

It’s true that Southern California has too much of certain types of retail space, such as “power centers” that feature huge, single-category retailers, Kosmont said.

On the other hand, he said, “There is a trend in congested areas of Southern California for pockets of retail to be strung closer together because people don’t want to drive as much.” The new center in Westchester, “is the kind of infill retail that I think is going to be a continuing trend in the congestion-prone areas of Southern California.”

The theaters, shops and restaurants at the Promenade should benefit from the adjacent office towers at Howard Hughes Center, Kosmont added, calling the shopping center “an amenity package for the offices.”

Howard Hughes Center, owned by Los Angeles-based Arden Realty Inc., includes more than 1.1 million square feet of existing office space and a 300,000-square-foot tower under construction. It will eventually have two hotels, said Robert Peddicord, an Arden senior vice president. The retail center is an important selling point in attracting tenants to the company’s office buildings, he said.

Developer Jerry Snyder was determined to have a theater in the center and told the Los Angeles Times last year that his Los Angeles firm would be willing to bear all of the costs of building and outfitting a theater if necessary, then hire a theater operator to run it for a fee.

Traditionally, a developer builds only the outer shell of the theater and the movie exhibitor finances the cost of outfitting the interior with seats, projection equipment and other fixtures and equipment--expenses that can run into millions of dollars.

The arrangement that Snyder and CineBridge signed is “a fairly traditional deal between us and the landlord,” according to Redstone, who said CineBridge bore the costs of outfitting the theater because it believes the center’s high-visibility location along the freeway and its Westside demographics will make the venture a success.

The Promenade is a joint venture of Snyder and Orix Real Estate Equities and was designed by McLarand, Vasquez & Partners. Its retail stores and restaurants, most of which are already open, include Nordstrom Rack, Borders Books & Music, Prego, On the Border, Chinese Gourmet, Jody Maroni’s, Johnny Rockets and Starbucks.