Cinema Conversions Biggest Challenge Today, Broker Says

ORLANDO-About 500,000 sf out of an estimated total 650,000 sf of shuttered movie house space has been sitting vacant in metro Orlando, waiting for a suitable user, since December 1999, according to GlobeSt.com research based on published individual closings.

And it probably will stay that way for awhile, predicts John M. Crossman, senior vice president/retail services director, Trammell Crow Co., Orlando. “It’s a very serious problem,” Crossman tells GlobeSt.com, “and the results could have been much worse if more product would have come on line.”

He says the theater industry, particularly in Central Florida, was growing rapidly, “faster than demand.” At the same time, newer retail developments were planning to use theaters as anchors. “Several (retail) projects were saved by not doing the theater deals,” Crossman recalls.