Mall Racing to Beat Downtown With First Theater

ORLANDO-After 23 years of abstinence, Downtown residents may be treated to two 12-screen movie theaters four miles apart.

Ground-breaking plans are being prepared for a 53,000-sf site at the just-announced $140-million Plaza mixed-use venture in the central business district and a similar project at an estimated 60,000-sf, $6-million location at Colonial Properties Trust’s 1.1-million sf Orlando Fashion Square regional mall.

But the mall project is expected to open its doors first, according to Colonial Properties officials. The mall theater, being developed by Houston-based Premiere Cinema Corp., is scheduled to break ground in first quarter 2004 and be ready for business by fall 2004. The Plaza’s project, to be built by Birmingham, AL-based Amstar Entertainment LLC, is tentatively set to open in December 2005.