Because several have asked, below are a couple of stories from August 2014 and January 2015 about the movie theater.
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Lenoir City getting cinema
Matthew Sims shows his younger sister, Ellie, where future retail space will be located in the Town Creek retail development, which will soon be home to a state-of-the-art movie theater, Lenoir City officials announced Thursday.
Stephanie Myers news-herald.net
August 28, 2014-Lenoir City residents will soon be able to enjoy the big screen without having to make the jaunt to Turkey Creek or Knoxville.
A state-of-the-art movie theater will located in the Town Creek retail development off U.S. Highway 321, Lenoir City officials announced Thursday afternoon. West Virginia-based Marquee Cinemas is expected to be open next summer.
“Over the last century we have watched a small community develop into a thriving and growing city that is home to some of the nation’s well-known businesses ...” Aikens told the crowd Thursday.
The cinema will include 10 screens, reclining seats, reserved seating with digital technology and some 3-D screens.
Marquee President and Chief Executive Officer Curtis McCall said the Lenoir City location will rival any cinema in the region. The theater, which will be located to the west of the current Food City and retail shops, is expected to create 35-40 jobs.
Plans are to break ground in November, McCall said, adding that the company will also be building a new theater in Bristol. Marquee currently has 19 locations.
“We like markets that have no competitions to start with, and you have a population base in the city and the county to make it successful as far as what you have to draw,” McCall said. “This seems like a great growing area and surrounding counties I think will support us a lot and will drive into this area and hopefully make the retail a little better.
“The research has proven with the new luxury, stadium seating that has just came out people will drive by an old theater to get to them every day,” McCall added.
Snagging a movie theater in Lenoir City has been a longtime process, Aikens said.
“It will be indeed a high quality theater, will be built with the best furnishings as well as the most advanced digital and audio technologies that exist,” he said. “Finally the citizens of Lenoir City and Loudon County and surrounding communities will be able to bring their entire family here to enjoy the latest and greatest Hollywood films in a theater that will be as good, in some cases better, than any theaters in our 16-county region.”
David Garfunkel & Co., owner of the Town Creek properties, has been hoping to snag the cinema for the past two years, Joseph Goldstein, senior vice president, said.
“As a father, I would hate for my children to have to drive so far on the highway to go to the theater, so we’re really excited about that,” Goldstein said.
“We just thought that would be a good driving force, and there is no entertainment here. This gives something the whole family to do, and we’re excited about it,” he said.
Goldstein said SunTrust bank will be relocating to the parcel between Regions Bank and Bojangle’s on Highway 321. Aikens said ground-breaking for the new Lenoir City Utilities Board complex and convention center will begin Sept. 10.
Residents came out in Thursday’s heat to snack on popcorn as they celebrated the announcement.
“I think that’s awesome. Lenoir City, I mean we have enough people here to where we don’t need to go to Turkey Creek or anywhere else,” Lenoir City resident Gail Boring said. “I’m hoping this will give Lenoir City a lot of job opportunities and just bring more people here too, you know, new residents.
“You get a lot of people going to Turkey Creek, the traffic and everything else, and here you can draw people from Sweetwater and smaller towns, and they don’t have to go as far ... and it just brings more business here,” she added.
For entertainment, the family typically takes a trip to nearby Turkey Creek or Foothills Mall, Boring said.
“We’ve got a Chick-fil-A here now. It’s just got to go up from there,” she said, adding that she hopes the announcement will bring in more jobs and revenue to the city.
“Lenoir City is not the little grumpy town it used to be,” Boring said.
With a bag of popcorn in hand, Matthew Sims said he is glad a movie theater is coming to Lenoir City. His father, Jack Sims, owner and operator of the Lenoir City Kentucky Fried Chicken, said his children love to go to the movies.
“It’s nice we won’t have to drive to Turkey Creek,” Jack Sims said, adding that he hopes the added retail space will attract more customers to his nearby business.
“I go up to Turkey Creek and I saw all my neighbors and stuff up there. I have a restaurant here, so you know people when they’re up there at the movies they’re eating and all that business is leaving our town,” Sims said.
Lenoir City Councilman Jim Shields agreed.
“I would like to see that in our hometown where the revenue and the shopping is right here. You don’t have to go out of town to get it,” Shields said. “There are some exciting things coming with (the theater), and it’s just the start of the development here, I believe.”
Goldstein said the movie theater will encourage more retailers to locate to Town Creek.
“I think we have a lot of retailers that have expressed strong interest — major retailers — and I think once the theater is announced that it is coming I think that drive the rest of the retailers,” Goldstein said. “And we’re hoping that this is just the beginning of many things.”
Aikens emphasized that retail growth should bring added benefits.
“It is estimated that when Town Creek gets built out it will double the tax base in Lenoir City,” Aikens said. “That’s huge for the taxpayers of Lenoir City.”
January 28 2015-Groundbreaking on a state-of-the-art movie theater has been delayed at Lenoir City’s Town Creek retail development off U.S. Highway 321, but Lenoir City and Town Creek development officials have said that other future retail development in the area is still in the works.
David Garfunkel & Co. Senior Vice President Joseph Goldstein, whose company owns the Town Creek property, said the developer hopes to soon make announcements of other big box retailers making the move to Lenoir City.
During an announcement ceremony in late August, David Garfunkel & Co. representatives outlined potential retailers could include small clothing shops, pet stores and eateries neighboring Marquee Cinemas, which is based in West Virginia, that will be built to the right of the current Food City location off U.S. Highway 321.
Goldstein said the developer hopes to break ground on retail space that will neighbor the cinema in late summer with a grand opening ceremony slated to be held by this time next year.
“The rest of the project is moving forward at a very good pace, and we hope to be able to bring in some very nice big box retailers,” he said. “We hope to break ground sometime this summer or late spring with a grand opening this time next year, early 2016.
“I really am not at liberty to disclose which tenants we are speaking to at the moment, but we do have a lot of very interested clients for Lenoir City,” Goldstein said, adding that he hopes to announce which big box retailers will relocate to the area within “the next month or so.”
While he indicated that good news was on the horizon for future retail development, Goldstein said the cinema project is being delayed due to personal issues in higher management staff within the company.
Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens said he believes the cinema will still make a positive impact on the local economy.
“I’ve met with them before the holidays,” Aikens said about cinema officials Monday. “I still feel confident that they are going to build, and they assured me that they are going to.”
The cinema, expected to rival other theaters in the region and create 35-40 jobs, will include 10 screens, luxury, reclined and reserved seats with digital technology and some 3-D screens.
Marquee President and Chief Executive Officer Curtis McCall said in August that original plans were to break ground on the theater in November and to open the theater by sometime this summer.
Marquee also plans to build a new theater in Bristol. The company has a total of 19 locations.
Aikens added that dining seating in the theater will also be an added plus at the Lenoir City location.
“It will give families a place to go instead of having to travel to Turkey Creek or on into west Knoxville,” Aikens said. “I feel like it will be an economic boost. I think we will have people obviously from surrounding counties come to us (due to) less traffic issues. I think people from Maryville and people obviously from Loudon and Athens and other areas will visit us, Oak Ridge.
“It’s supposed to be a state-of-the-art movie theater,” he added. “You’re supposed to be able to sit down and eat dinner as well as watch a movie. It will be different than what we are used to when we go to a movie theatre. So it will be huge for Lenoir City and Loudon County, and we’ve worked very hard to try to convince them of that, and they agree, and the community supports it.”
Marquee representatives did not return phone calls for comment.