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As the City of Manhattan’s south end redevelopment project begins downtown, a 50,000-square-foot void remains in the redevelopment area until the city can find a means to fill that vacancy.
In early August, the city of Manhattan sent out a press release stating that the proposed luxury movie theater, Warren Theatres, had pulled out of the south end redevelopment project. The release also stated that the city and Dial Realty, the realty firm heading up the redevelopment, were initiating efforts to replace the theater.
Bill Warren, owner of Warren Theatres, said the main concern with developing a theater in Manhattan was monetary. A recent corporate decision was made to keep Warren Theatres out of cities that have a metro area of less than 500,000 people, Warren said.
“I’m the one that probably made the final decision on this so I guess I’m the bad guy,” Warren said. “It’s nothing against the city. I think Manhattan is a great city. The theaters that I build are just outrageously expensive and so much more costly than a normal theater, and even doing a smaller version is still very, very expensive.”
Warren said an unidentified college city in another state already had the financing ready and the papers signed, but his decision “has nothing to do with picking one city over another.”
Warren said there was a delay in setting up the paperwork with Manhattan because of an undisclosed lawsuit going on, and during that time the company made alternate arrangements with the other city to begin construction.
Warren had other construction concerns regarding Manhattan as a location.
“I am not a fan of parking garages,” Warren said. “I don’t think they’re user friendly, and they just don’t meet the standards that I want. They’re just kind of creepy.”
Jason Hilgers, assistant city manager, said that over the next three to four months, the city is going through a rezoning process. He said the city will invest a lot of time into looking at every detail of the design to begin construction in 2010.
Since Warren Theatres has backed out, the redevelopment project is missing one tenant.
“A theater company could still be in the mix in that replacement,” said Hilgers. “The challenge we have is basically fitting it within our local and STAR Bond regulations. We have received state money to assist us with the project, and they would like to see a unique location.”
Hilgers said a normal theater, without amenities like dinner and upgraded facilities that Warren Theatres would have offered, probably would not meet the requirements for a “unique location.”
Warren said if the city decides to create a different theater for the location, then his corporation would assist in the design of the theater.
“We would like to do something there, but it just kind of gets back to that we seem to be really good at building these monster theaters that do well in big cities, and I’m not sure we have the ability to do what we would need to do in a smaller city,” Warren said.
Lindsey Peterson, sophomore in family studies and human services, has attended films at the Warren Theatre in Wichita several times.
Peterson said while the theaters are nice, they are highly overpriced and do not provide really enticing qualities.
“I feel the movie theater that Manhattan has is very nice, and there really isn’t a need to build a new one,” she said. “Warrens are very nice in the fact that they serve dinners, but other than that there is nothing that special about them, and they are very pricey.”
After a number of public meetings and final development agreements, Hilgers said the redevelopment project will continue forward.
“We don’t anticipate a drop-off [in consumers],” Hilgers said. “In fact, we will probably see a net increase in terms of users. Hopefully we can find other types of retailers to substitute that attraction.”
