Downtown To Get A Movie Theater?

[Gistok]

That is a very ignorant statement. There are people in the Pointes of all kinds. Have you been to the Village lately?

We do not want a theater in the Village because it would have consumed one of the largest parking lots in the area. Parking is already in dreadfully short supply in the Village.

Trying to foolishly ascribe a racial motive to this issue is preposterous. You ought to know better than that.

You mean Grosse Pointe Park? Yes... they closed the Esquire Theatre because of "problems"... literally Eminent Domain'ed it [[back when you could) from the Steiner family... and tore it down so there would be no more "trouble" in that theatre. Today they no longer have a "public" theatre... just the one for locals at Grosse Pointe Park Park.... where you have to be a resident to see the film.

The Punch and Judy is offices today [[built within the theatre), the Woods is long gone... and in south Warren the city finally got rid of Cinema City Warren 4. The Harper Woods Theatres are gone, as are the Eastwood [[Eastpointe), the Shores-Madrid [[SCS), and the Roseville....

You have to get quite some ways out of the Detroit city limits before you come across any theatres at all. Ditto for the west side. Is this all coincidental, or deliberate?

[313WX]

You have to get quite some ways out of the Detroit city limits before you come across any theatres at all.

Not entirely true. There's still the Bel-Air theatre.

[Gistok]

Not entirely true. There's still the Bel-Air theatre.

True.... how can I forget... that's where Eminem's movie "8 Mile" had their world premier. Aren't they the lone regular movie theatres left in Detroit? I wish the adjacent Bel-Air shopping center would have been successful.

[mtburb]

True.... how can I forget... that's where Eminem's movie "8 Mile" had their world premier. Aren't they the lone regular movie theatres left in Detroit?

Yes they are, if you just count first-run facilities.

Though if you are in the southernmost part of the city of Detroit you still have to head quite a ways into the suburbs before encountering a first-run theater..though that area is about equidistant between the Star Fairlane 21 and the MJR Southgate 20, though at a slightly further away distance is the new Cinemark at Southland too, although it currently takes twice as long to get there from far southwest Detroit due to the I-75 shutdown.

[Gistok]

My whole point was not to blame/shame Grosse Pointe... but to show that due to the fact that there are really [[nearly) no first run theatres left in Detroit... that the inner ring suburbs seem to have made an effort to close down [[or not allow zoning for) movie theatres in their areas. They realize that they would have the closest [[to Detroit) theatres... and they don't want to deal with the problems that some of the former theatres had [[such as the Warren 4 City Cinema's).

[Towne Cluber]

You have to get quite some ways out of the Detroit city limits before you come across any theatres at all. Ditto for the west side. Is this all coincidental, or deliberate?

AMC Fairlane [[Dearborn, 3 miles)
MJR Universal [[Warren, 4 miles)

[Gistok]

AMC Fairlane [[Dearborn, 3 miles)
MJR Universal [[Warren, 4 miles)

... and where are the others? Clinton Township, Sterling Heights, Troy, Rochester, Birmingham, Farmington Hills, Novi, Plymouth, Canton, Livonia, Wayne, Southgate and Woodhaven....

[casscorridor]

AMC Fairlane [[Dearborn, 3 miles)
MJR Universal [[Warren, 4 miles)

That's counting the distance from the city limits. In other words, very far from the center, which is why there needs to be a megaplex near Downtown. Also, it's funny how in Michigan, 3 miles is considered close.

[Towne Cluber]

That's counting the distance from the city limits. In other words, very far from the center, which is why there needs to be a megaplex near Downtown. Also, it's funny how in Michigan, 3 miles is considered close.

Original poster: "You have to get quite some ways out of the Detroit CITY LIMITS before you come across any theatres at all. Ditto for the west side. Is this all coincidental, or deliberate?"

It's also funny that 3 miles is close when we want it to be...

[bust]

Here's an idea.... take the old Fine Arts Building facade on W. Adams on GCP... and build a 5 story building behind the historic surviving facade. The Fine Arts Building was [[besides offices above) the entrance to the former Adams Theatre [[razed by Ilitch's)... which was on W. Elizabeth [[one street north of Adams).

They could build a new multiplex theatre on the site of the Adams auditorium, and use the Fine Arts Building entrance as the lobby... recreating the "Alley Jumper" style that the Adams theatre used to have... having some of the multiplex's theatres entranceway tunnel under the alley [[between Adams and Elizabeth)... and other multiplex theatres crossing over at a 2nd level skyway, thus stacking some of the theatres on top of each other.

Having the Emagine Theatre megaplex directly on West Grand Circus Park would make it close to residential towers... Broderick, Whitney, United Artists, Kales, Milner, Village Green, and also many residential buildings on Woodward and Washington Blvd.

I also love this idea. It would restore some Ilitch family / Olympia karma after what they did to the Adams. They clearly have no better plans for the site.

HistoricDetroit.org has a nice history of the Adams, including how it met its demise. Common knowledge worth remembering:

Adams Theatre
http://www.historicdetroit.org/building/adams-theatre/

"The Adams Theatre was a 1,770-seat theater designed by famed architect C. Howard Crane as a playhouse for John Kunsky’s chain of entertainment venues. It opened Sept. 1, 1917, with a stage performance called “Romance.”...

Real estate tycoon, sports team owner and pizza mogul Mike Ilitch bought the closed Adams from the Higbie family and adjoining Fine Arts Building in 1992. Around this time, he started buying up everything and anything near the Fox in anticipation of building a new ballpark for his Detroit Tigers near his Foxtown empire. As early as May 1994, Atanas Ilitch said the family was working on a plan to revive the Adams.

Tigers spokesman Tom Shields told the Free Press in November 1995 that Ilitch would renovate the Adams and the Grand Army of the Republic Building. "The Ilitches plan to fully develop their properties" near the stadium, Shields told the paper. "They certainly hope everybody else does the same.” The developments of those structures, as well as the Ilitch-owned United Artists Theatre, the Chin Tiki, the Detroit Life Building, Moose Lodge, Fine Arts Building and three other structures in the area, have never happened.

Taxpayers pay to raze the Adams

The Adams continued to fall into a state of unsalvageable disrepair. Its roof over the stage had failed, leaving gaping holes for years that allowed the elements to destroy much of the auditorium. What the weather didn't ruin, scrappers and vandals did. The theater's rusted marquee on Grand Circus Park was removed in 1999. By 2006, the Fine Arts and Adams were boarded up and written off as a lost cause, the renovation by Ilitch a forgotten promise.

In April 2009, Detroit hosted the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four at nearby Ford Field. Ilitch, a man worth an estimated $1.6 billion in 2008 by Forbes Magazine, had the city's Downtown Development Authority give him $2.5 million in state-funded grants to tear down six of his rundown buildings: the Chin Tiki, the Elizabeth Street Lofts, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the 135 Elizabeth parking garage — and the Adams and Fine Arts Building. The $2.5 million was money left over from funding for cleaning up the city ahead of the 2006 Super Bowl that was hosted at Ford Field.

DDA board member Ted Gatzaros voted against giving Ilitch taxpayer money for the demolitions, telling Crain's Detroit Business that "we need to prioritize where we apply money." But the allocation was approved anyway, and some of the cleared sites were then turned into surface parking lots where people paid $20 and up.

The Adams started coming down on May 28, 2009, as an excavator tore into the back of the theater on the Grand Circus Park side. Work went fast, as two days later, a huge chunk was taken out of the theater's roof and by May 31, about half the Adams was gone. It would be completely gone by the end of June. Seats, the projector, popcorn machines and other relics from the Adams' past were gobbled up by wrecking equipment and tossed into Dumpsters. Demolition of the Fine Arts began once the Adams was removed from the landscape.

Fortunately, Ilitch's Olympia Development picked up an estimated $500,000 stabilization of the Fine Arts Building's façade. Unfortunately, Olympia has said it had no plans before demolition — and no plans for the façade afterward either. Atanas Ilitch, now president of Olympia Development, said in a statement: "We are confident that the façade of the historic Fine Arts Building can be preserved and ultimately integrated into a new development that will occupy the site at some point in the future.

If development does happen, a little piece of the Adams will live on; others fear that the façade will either collapse accidentally or the Ilitches will give up and have it razed like the rest of the buildings."

That DDA again.

Off topic: Something doesn't feel right about an unelected non-governmental committee repeatedly putting so much tax money into megarich hands. And for very questionable benefit to the city. In this case its hard to argue it wasn't to its detriment. No surprise they're almost entirely a bunch of rich dudes themselves.

I don't believe in the trickle down theory but I'll bet the next step for a lot of that megarich dude money is into rich dude hands. That's natural without bribery.

Sure wish citizens, journalists, citizen advocates, and actual elected officials would give that a closer look.

[bust]

You mean Grosse Pointe Park? Yes... they closed the Esquire Theatre because of "problems"... ...

I took my first date to the Esquire to see Eddie Murphy "Raw", went to buy popcorn, returned to find a guy many years older in my seat trying to talk her up.

[Towne Cluber]

That's counting the distance from the city limits. In other words, very far from the center, which is why there needs to be a megaplex near Downtown. Also, it's funny how in Michigan, 3 miles is considered close.

More Detroiters live closer to the city limits than the center. For many Detroiters, a downtown movie theater would be equal to--or farther away--than several of the suburban theaters.

*Also add: Emagine Royal Oak [[3 miles), Star Southfield [[4 miles)

[cmubryan]

Am I the only that thinks a "megaplex" is wrong for downtown? I see nothing but dozens of teenagers hanging out causing problems, shootings, etc. This problem has repeated itself over and over again in Metro Detroit [[anyone remember the AMC Southfield City 12?). Sorry to be a "Debbie Downer" but after visiting other downtowns of cities similar in size and demographics, Indianapolis sticks out in my mind right now, I haven't been impressed by the downtown megaplexes or their patrons.

Instead: A few smaller, more intimate theatres spread around downtown. Maybe one for newer releases, one for art films, one for classics, etc. This goes along with the theme that not one large project will rebuild downtown but it takes a series of smaller-scale projects to create the atmosphere we want.

[Detroitdave]

I agree 100 percent ! Detroit is not ready for a megaplex in downtown.
I just don't believe Detroit could handle a megaplex and what comes with it.

Am I the only that thinks a "megaplex" is wrong for downtown? I see nothing but dozens of teenagers hanging out causing problems, shootings, etc. This problem has repeated itself over and over again in Metro Detroit [[anyone remember the AMC Southfield City 12?). Sorry to be a "Debbie Downer" but after visiting other downtowns of cities similar in size and demographics, Indianapolis sticks out in my mind right now, I haven't been impressed by the downtown megaplexes or their patrons.

Instead: A few smaller, more intimate theatres spread around downtown. Maybe one for newer releases, one for art films, one for classics, etc. This goes along with the theme that not one large project will rebuild downtown but it takes a series of smaller-scale projects to create the atmosphere we want.

[casscorridor]

Am I the only that thinks a "megaplex" is wrong for downtown? I see nothing but dozens of teenagers hanging out causing problems, shootings, etc. This problem has repeated itself over and over again in Metro Detroit [[anyone remember the AMC Southfield City 12?). Sorry to be a "Debbie Downer" but after visiting other downtowns of cities similar in size and demographics, Indianapolis sticks out in my mind right now, I haven't been impressed by the downtown megaplexes or their patrons.

Instead: A few smaller, more intimate theatres spread around downtown. Maybe one for newer releases, one for art films, one for classics, etc. This goes along with the theme that not one large project will rebuild downtown but it takes a series of smaller-scale projects to create the atmosphere we want.

You have a point. However, it's nothing that can't be dealt with. There could be rules that no one under the age of 18 is allowed to enter the theatre unaccompanied [[at the very least within certain times). There could be heightened security with bag checks and/or metal detectors to prevent weapons from being brought into the theatre. I think if done right, incidences could be kept to a minimum.

As to your second point, I agree that several small theatres could work very well, but I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. They represent different business models. I'm especially thinking of concept/boutique cinemas, where there is more emphasis on viewer experience, drinks, food, special events, unique programming and so on.

Here is an NYT article on the proliferation of such cinemas in New York https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/f...s.html?mcubz=1)

At any rate, Downtown is growing into an entertainment destination, and there is no reason why cinema can't be part of the equation [[both big and small).

[Zacha341]

Sadly, much of the 'drama' depends on the film shown at the given theater.

I agree 100 percent ! Detroit is not ready for a megaplex in downtown.
I just don't believe Detroit could handle a megaplex and what comes with it.

[Zads07]

They have a movie theatre-brewhouse where my girlfriend is from. I haven't yet been there but it looks like a great idea. Wonder if this is something that could happen.

https://www.flixbrewhouse.com/

[Vitalis]

Theaters - Movie theaters are a thing of the past. Distributors are already thinking beyond the Megaplex. Your family room, your man cave, your home theater set-up is the future. Check that, IMAX and whatever large formats are to come will survive.

[Gistok]

On a side note... I wish one of the downtown movie palaces would do like the Fox did about 20 years ago... have a Saturday matinee of old blockbusters... so that people can bring their kids/grandkids down to experience the old movie palace matinee's. I remember on Saturday in the 1990s seeing Lawrence of Arabia and The Wizard of Oz at the Fox, the latter with my nieces and nephews... so they could experience the old "Saturday Matinee" as it was in the 1930s-1950s.

Too bad the Fox, Detroit Opera House or Music Hall can't do that again [[the Fillmore/State would be ideal, but they removed main floor permanent seating). Maybe with more people moving downtown/midtown, this "blast from the past" could be brought back to life at one of the venues.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Vitalis, I think you are little too pessimistic. Yes, home viewing [[propelled by cinema quality pic & sound, huge screens, etc) is becoming more prevalent. But movie houses will remain, if fewer of them. There is still a "cinema experience" to be had, especially for event movies & for date nights.

Gistok, I have wanted what you mention for ages. When I lived in NYC, I loved regularly getting to see classic movies on the big screen [[the late, great Zeigfeld would make an occasion out of it, and it was spectacular). I am especially a lover of classic movie musicals, and I wish there would be a Hollywood Musical Film Fest in Detroit, with 2 weeks of movies large and small playing in several different venues downtown. I think it would be a real tourist draw. To the best of my knowledge, nowhere is doing such a thing.

[56packman]

The Redford serves this market, in the city's NW corner.

[SyGolden48236]

Still no groundbreaking for this "development" yet, eh? This seems to be just another in a long line of extremely over-hyped announcements from Emagine that goes nowhere.

[stasu1213]

Still no groundbreaking for this "development" yet, eh? This seems to be just another in a long line of extremely over-hyped announcements from Emagine that goes nowhere.

Maybe the announcement was not overhyped but just Emagine, being a national chain, is suffering from what most national chain businesses suffers in Detroit; red tape and politics

[SyGolden48236]

Maybe the announcement was not overhyped but just Emagine, being a national chain, is suffering from what most national chain businesses suffers in Detroit; red tape and politics

They have a history of announcing plans to build theaters in the suburbs, also with much media fanfare, that never make it past the press release. It is not just in Detroit.

They did the same thing in St Clair Shores a few years back. They also did it in Grosse Pointe and, thank God, that proposal never materialized.

[mtburb]

They have a history of announcing plans to build theaters in the suburbs, also with much media fanfare, that never make it past the press release. It is not just in Detroit.

They did the same thing in St Clair Shores a few years back. They also did it in Grosse Pointe and, thank God, that proposal never materialized.

You have to mention that at this point they may be more of a seller. Last year they sold their 2009-vintage theater in Woodhaven to AMC.