Movie theater new star of Whitley County

10/01/2006

By DOUG LEDUC
dougl@fwbusiness.com

When Chris Jones and Tim Duvall began construction this summer on Bones Theatre in Columbia City, it was a big moment for retailing as well as entertainment in Whitley County.  The county has not had a movie theater since the mid-1960s. Bones Theatre will open early next year, showing first-run movies in four auditoriums with stadium seating for 500 patrons.

A market analysis for the $2.2-million project, based on typical movie-going habits and the size of the population within a 15-mile radius, arrived at an estimate that the theater could attract 115,000 patrons each year "pretty easily," Jones said.  Jones, who went by the nickname "Bones" in college, is not involved in the development of any nearby commercial property, but he and his partner in the business "are entertaining prospects," he said.

Data from the National Association of Theater Owners explains the reason for that kind of interest: 77 percent of the movie-going public combine dining out with a movie, and 61 percent do some shopping before or after the event.  The county has seen the usual speculation that "if we can just get that going, then a restaurant will come and an ice-cream store," said Dave Sewell, director for the Whitley County Planning Commission.

In terms of square feet, the theater is among a handful of large, commercial development projects the county has seen lately. All of them have been along U.S. 30.  They include last year's construction of a 25,000-square-foot facility for R&D Motorsports between U.S. 30 and Connexion Way, and the construction of a Walgreens Drug Store about half a mile east at the southwest corner of U.S. 30 and Line Street.

The $4.5-million, 15,000-square-foot Walgreens project was key to the $3-million redevelopment of the Columbia Plaza strip shopping center after Sears Roebuck & Co. closed a store there last year and Village Cleaning Center moved across the street.  "We took the existing center's 60,000 square feet and lopped off 20,000 square feet to allow for Walgreens," said Joe Padorr, marketing director for Chicago-based Preferred Development.  "We took the remaining 40,000 square feet and enhanced the facade, provided a credit union on the premises with a drive-through teller and kind of paved the parking area on the southwest portion of the center and really enhanced the look."

The center also gained Professional Federal Credit Union as a tenant and now has a little more than 5,000 square feet of retailing space to market.  Stanley Phillips of Harding Dahm is representing Columbia Plaza along with Columbia Commons, a 12,000-square-foot strip shopping center Preferred Development is about to complete next to R&D Motorsports.  Columbia Commons "was open space when we had heard that development was moving that way," Padorr said.  "They'd just started the four-screen movie theater that is right behind us on Connexion Way. That's going to kind of be an anchor back there; we assume it will bring some other retail.  "We had a presence at Columbia Plaza, and it seemed like a good opportunity to have some frontage on (U.S.) 30 that was appealing."  Preferred Development is just finishing the $2-million strip shopping center on a 1-acre site next to two additional acres of land available for development. Other large projects under way are at U.S. 30 and Line Street.

Not far from the intersection, CVS is building a store at the southeast corner, across the street from the Walgreens Drug Store. And a dental office at the northeast corner of the intersection is being converted into a facility for a Three Rivers Federal Credit Union.  The credit union has operated for about eight years at a Scott's Food & Pharmacy location on U.S. 30 in Columbia City. Jeff Bruce, marketing vice president for Three Rivers, said its business in the city has grown a great deal and now could use more space, as well as drive-through facilities.  At the new location it will have better access to the Indiana 109 side of Line Street; it will be more visible, and it will be able to offer drive-through teller as well as automatic teller machine service, Buce said.  As commercial development proceeds on U.S. 30, Columbia City is focusing some redevelopment resources on an effort to reposition its downtown area as a specialty retail and dining hub of Whitley County.

It started a facade renovation program for the area last year at the recommendation of HyettPalma Inc., a consultant hired to analyze the business sector and outline a strategy to act on opportunities and deal with potential problems.  The program provides matching grants of up to $5,000 for facade renovation, and six applicants have taken advantage of it, including owners of stores and office buildings.  That is a good start, but "not as many as we'd like to see," said Pat Hatcher, president of the Columbia City Chamber of Commerce.  "We've maintained a pretty full downtown. We very seldom see an empty building; when somebody goes, somebody else comes in and starts using the space," she said.  The HyettPalma report also resulted in the establishment of a downtown marketing group, Hatcher said.  "One of the main things the study showed is when you have a downtown that looks alive and vibrant, you will maintain that downtown."