The center will be built on 7 1/2 acres at US Highway 95 and Loop 150, near the entrance to Bastrop State Park. Most of Bastrop's recent development has been on its west side along busy US Highway 71, where Wal-Mart and H-E-B stores are located and a Home Depot has begun construction. Around the entertainment center are a convenience store and a small strip center.

"The east side of town has been pretty much ignored," Chess says. "There's been a lot of interest on the part of city government to improve that approach to Bastrop. This will start it."

Other prospective theater developers had looked at the west side, Chess says. What sold the east side site was the willingness of landowner Tom Dykes of Austin to do a different kind of deal. "In this case, the landowner was willing to put his land into it in return for a percentage," Chess says.

The developer of the American Family Entertainment Center is Bill Kellen, a Wyoming rancher and businessman. He's developing a smaller version of the center in Pinedale, WY. Best Construction Services of Salado, TX is building the center and the architect is Great Basin Engineering of Salt Lake City, UT.

While most real estate deals and economic development depend on longtime relationships, this one shows that there's still an element of chance involved. Chess, for several years, has been a proponent of putting a movie theater in Bastrop. When Kellen's former ranch foreman, who had moved to Bastrop, called the Bastrop Chamber of Commerce wondering where the town's theater was, officials directed him to Chess. From there, Chess brought the players together.