NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio -- Movies will be returning soon to Great Northern Mall with the announcement Tuesday that Phoenix Theatres will be taking over the space vacated about a year ago by Regal Cinemas.
Great Northern management announced Tuesday that Phoenix Theatres would be the new operators of the former Regal Great Northern Mall Stadium 10 & RPX.
According to management, Phoenix is expected to invest $5 million into the 43,955-square-foot building that is connected to the mall near JC Penney and not far from the shuttered Sears store. It was also announced that North Olmsted officials planned to approve a grant of an unspecified amount to Phoenix in February.
Scheduled to open this summer, this will be Phoenix’s eighth theater and first entry into the Greater Cleveland market, which the company said would feature Dolby Atmos audio technology and heated recliners that have liftable arm rests. Phoenix said the theater would employ around 50 people.
Other Phoenix operations include four in Michigan - at Laurel Park in Livonia, Mall of Monroe in Monroe, State-Wayne in Wayne and Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids - plus operations at the Northtowne Mall in Defiance, Ohio; Kennedy Mall in Dubuque, Iowa; and the Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne and North Olmsted Mayor Nicole Dailey were present for the news conference.
“This afternoon is more than about announcing a new business opening, it’s about a community pilar coming back to life,” Dailey said. Though a number of theaters closed regionally since the start of the pandemic, “to date only one has reopened. In a few months, Phoenix Theaters will be the second with the reopening of Great Northern Mall Cinema.”
Dailey said movie theaters “play an important role in communities. They are a source of cultural enrichment and exposes community members to new ideas, artforms and creative expression that they may not otherwise experience.”
Regal closed its doors early last year, a decade after opening in 2013. It had brought the movie experience back to North Olmsted following the closing of another theater in 2000 located in the outdoor shopping complex near where Home Depot now stands.
Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted. The white building to the right of the JC Penney store is the location of the theater complex. The large white building to the far right is the Sears store that closed in 2020.Google Earth
The former Regal cinema featured 10 auditoriums with stadium seating and once hosted Regal’s only RPX theater in that area, which featured a 55-foot wide screen with a premium digital audio system.
With the pandemic and the rise of streaming services, the theater industry has been struggling to bring in moviegoers, leading to closings across the region and nationally. In early 2023, the North Olmsted Regal became the third area movie theater to close.
The section of the Great Northern Mall near the area of the theater has struggled since the closing of Ohio’s last remaining full-size Sears store in 2020.
Yet it remains one of the region’s largest shopping centers with four major anchors - JCPenney, Macy’s, Dillard’s and Dicks Sporting Goods - in addition to dozens of smaller stores and restaurants within in excess of 1.2 million square foot of the indoor mall.
Original Story HERE