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Daily News - Miner*D-2D-3D-3-5Sectionr; 459-7577Sunday, Aprii 25, 1999New theaters expand moviegoers' optionsBy SEAN COCKERHAMStaff WriterIt’s coming soon: A theater near you with 16 screens, stadium seating, state-of-the-art sound, even a cafe in the lobby serving up espresso and fresh baked goods.Construction on Fairbanks’ new Regal Cinemas theater is slated to begin May 3, with a grand opening in the late fall or early winter.“It’s going to be a very nice theater,’’ assured Regal Cinemas Senior Vice President of Marketing and Advertising Phil Za-cheretti, speaking from the company’s Knoxville Tenn. headquarters.The 16-plex is to be built at 1855 Airport Way, on the gravel lot at the rear of the Regal-owned Goldstream Cinemas. Still undecided is the fate of The Gold-theaterstream, a nme-screen which is currently the only fullblown moviehouse in town.The local movie revolution does not stop there. Fairbanks will also have a new second-run theater this fall, located inside the Ice Museum building on Second Avenue downtown.“It’s probably stupid now that they’re putting in the 16-plex, but we’ve already got the facility,” said Dick Brickley, coowner of the Ice Museum—whichused to be the Lacey Street Theater. “We actually decided to do it before we heard about the 16-screen.Brickley envisions chargingonly a few bucks for a movie, and having Saturday matinees for the kids at a family-friendly theater. He has not yet decided whether the theater would show movies in the summer, which is a busy time for the Ice Museum.Out the Parks Highway near Ester, the Blue Loon nightclub is home to a different style of second-run moviehouse.Adam Wool, owner of the Loon, is uncertain over the future of his establishment’s movie nights in the wake of the transformed local theater outlook.Icap•JVVjguess I have to wait and ” Wool said. “1 have a certainniche of people that don’t want to go to the big theaters. ”The new Regal Cinemas theater and the Blue Loon have very different things to offer. At the Blue Loon, a movie aficionado can lounge on a comfortable couch with a beer in hand.At the 16-plex, a movie-goer will be able to sip espresso, cappuccino, or flavored teas—or guzzle the usual array of soft drinks—while sitting in high-backed padded chairs in tiered stadium-styie rows.The Blue Loon, which chargeschanges its features weekly, does particularly well with movies that were never shown at the mainstream Goldstream Cin-Regal will make a decision on theGoldstream’s fate.emas.Starting May 10, the Loon will show “Shakespeare in Love,” a movie which won six Oscars—including Best Picture—but never made it to the Goldstream Cin-“That’s kind of the industry quandary now, what do you do with older projects when you build new ones,” he said.Plans call for on-site parking to be expanded by cutting some trees down in the southern end ofemas.Despite its Oscar success, Za-charetti said “Shakespeare in Love” is considered “more off-the lot, away from Airport Way, and the eastern part of the lot is to be re-graded.Strand Huntbeat, less of a Hollywood film.”“You don’t even have enough enough room (with nine screens) for all the major products,” he said. “Much less the less mainstream ones.Having a 16-screen theater in town opens the possibility of Regal Cinemas bringing in more diverse offerings, he said.Construction, based in Kirkland, Wash., with an office in Anchorage, was awarded the contract for the project in March.The company has built three theaters for Regal Cinemas in the Seattle area, said project manager Kenton Wilde.Most of the work on the Fairbanks theater will be sub-contracted out to Fairbanks andThe nine-screen Goldstream Cinemas will remain open through the summer. Once the new theater is up and running,Anchorage companies, he said.Zacharetti declined to disclosethe cost of the new theater, saying only that it is a multi-million dollar project.Courtesy of WPH Architecture PC of Portland, OregonNEW THEATER—Regal Cinemas plans to build a new 16-screen theater, shown in this computer rendering, in Fairbanks this summer.# :■ •' Eric EngmarVNews-MinerRELAXED—Moviegoers at The Blue Loon in Ester kick back and enjoy their favorite beverage on a white leather couch while watching the movie. If s a much different atmosphere than at larger multi-screen cinemas such as the one being built by Regal Cinemas near the Goldstreamr.inpmaQ nn Aimnrt Wav
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Sun, Apr 25, 1999
Page 32
Full Page
Clipped by
Adam W.
USA 01 Feb 2023
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