A permit application filed with Philadelphia's Department
of Licenses and Inspections for work at the Gallery at Market East shopping
mall refer to a “cinema tenant” as being part of the property’s redevelopment
plans.
Center City hasn’t had a movie theater specializing in
mainstream films, as the Gallery cinema would likely be, since the closure of
the Sameric Theatre (previously the Boyd) in 2002, said local movie-house
historian Howard Haas.
If a new theater came to the Gallery, which is being
revamped into an outlet-shopping center called Fashion Outlets of Philadelphia,
it would be much different from the venues that used to be in Center City, Haas
said.
“It would have more food options, reserved recliner seats, and a liquor
license,” he said. “That’s how mainstream movie theaters are opening these
days.”
The movie theater proposed at the Gallery would be
located on the third floor of the mall’s western-most section at 1025 Market
Street, L&I spokeswoman Karen Guss said in an email this week.
An additional “entertainment/restaurant tenant” also is
proposed for the third-floor space, currently part of clothing discounter
Burlington Coat Factory’s three-level store at the Gallery, Guss said.
The developers, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust
of Philadelphia and Macerich of Santa Monica, Calif., are aiming to complete the
Gallery’s $325 million transformation in 2018. No tenants of the redeveloped
mall have been announced, although PREIT chief executive Joseph Coradino has
said he has commitments from retailers, entertainment-venue operators, and
restaurants for about half
the property.
PREIT spokeswoman Heather Crowell declined to comment on
the movie-theater permit and its impact on the Burlington store, citing a
policy of not confirming “details on potential tenants without a fully executed
lease.”
Burlington Stores Inc. spokeswoman Lauren Flanagan did
not respond to an email.
Coradino has in the past called Burlington's relocation
“a possibility,” but he has not specified where it might be moved.
Haas said a movie theater could be a good fit for the
site, but cautioned that other proposals for Center City movie theaters did not
come to fruition.
Plans have called for movie venues at Penn’s Landing,
Liberty Place, the Wanamaker Building, the southwest corner of Eighth and
Market Streets, and other locations, he said.
“[In] the last few decades there have been countless
proposals and announcements of multiplexes in Center City,” Haas said. “None of
them were built.”
Source: Philly.com
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