Emagine Entertainment Inc. plans to open its first theater in Macomb County before year’s end.
And by next spring, it plans to open another in Birmingham’s Palladium complex.
The theaters, Emagine’s seventh and eighth in the state, are expected to add $10 million to the chain’s $35 million in annual revenue in the coming year, co-founder and Chairman Paul Glantz said.
“I believe movie-going is returning to its roots as neighborhood retail,” in contrast to the multiplex theaters within malls, said Glantz, 57, who is also president and CEO of Troy-based Proctor Financial Inc.
Both sites will look to take advantage of demand for local movie theaters, he said. And the Birmingham theater, downtown on Old Woodward Avenue, will include a new subscriber model to give members — customers who buy annual memberships, patrons of white-tablecloth restaurants in the city or guests of the Townsend Hotel — exclusive dibs on the limited number of seats.
Macomb plans
Troy-based Emagine currently operates Emagine theaters in Canton Township, Novi, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak and Woodhaven. It also operates the Cinema Hollywood in Birch Run and Clio Square Cinema in Clio.
Earlier plans to establish theaters in St. Clair Shores and Roseville didn’t pan out. But the market in northern Macomb County is “extraordinarily favorable,” Glantz said, with average household income of $90,000 in the trade area surrounding it.
Emagine defines its trade area as halfway between the theater and the next closest theaters, which are MJR Partridge Creek Digital Cinema 14 to the southeast, MJR Chesterfield Crossing Digital Cinema 16to the east, independent Romeo Theatre to the north and AMC Forum 30 at M-59 and Mound Road to the southwest.
The same area is expected to see population growth of more than 10 percent during the next four years, Glantz said, pointing to data from DemographicsNow.
Add to that the low occupancy cost for the project, and Glantz said he was sold on locating his first Macomb County theater within the confines of a 53,000-square-foot former Kroger Co. store at 23 Mile and Hayes roads.
Emagine is investing more than $10 million in the site, including the $2.2 million to purchase the 5-acre property, building, parking lot, lighting and established landscaping, Glantz said.
The purchase price equates to about $40 per square foot, he said.
Fifteen-foot excavators arrived at the property in September, after Emagine secured site plan approval. They are busy removing dirt from within the former store’s walls to create stadium seating. Columns are also being moved to create nine 50-foot-wide auditoriums in the building, Glantz said.
Among them will be an Emagine “E-Max” auditorium featuring a floor-to-ceiling screen and Dolby Atmos immersive sound system. In addition, power recliner chairs made by First Class Seating in Zeeland will be equipped to allow patrons to snap their food trays onto the arm rest to create a TV tray in front of them.
Emagine Macomb will also include a cocktail bar and in-theater dining with specialties from Plymouth’s Ironwood Grill. New food options include a build-your-own pizza station and frozen desserts station.
Bloomfield Hills-based Tower Construction LLC is the contractor for the Macomb site, and Indianapolis-based Studio 3 Design Inc. is project architect.
Emagine has secured its parking ordinance for the Macomb theater and a liquor license, Glantz said. The theater is set to open to the public Dec. 19, following a charity fundraiser on Dec. 18 to benefit Variety – the Children’s Charity and the Macomb Township Community Foundation.
Birmingham location
Emagine signed a long-term lease agreement with an affiliate of A.F. Jonna Development and Management Co. late last week to operate a boutique five-screen movie theater on what is now the third floor of the Palladium at 202 N. Old Woodward Ave. in Birmingham.
The theater, which had been operated by Bloomfield Hills-based Cloud Nine Theater Partners LLC, closed on Labor Day, following the March sale of the Palladium building to Bloomfield Hills-based A.F. Jonna. The developer is converting it into condominiums and offices, along with the revamped theater via the lease with Emagine.
The Palladium, a large mixed-use property on Old Woodward near Hamilton, was built in 2001 by The Related Cos. and sold a few years later. Tower Construction, an affiliate of A.F. Jonna, will build out the space; several million dollars of tenant improvements are planned.
Glantz said he’s not yet sure if the theater will operate as Emagine Palladium or Emagine Birmingham. But it will include a subscription model, offering annual single or family memberships. He didn’t yet have pricing.
Members would be allowed to bring guests, Glantz said, and unaccompanied preteens and teens would be welcome as long as their parents are members.
In return for their annual membership, subscribers would be able to purchase tickets through a password-protected website.
“The thought is to make it semi-private,” Glantz said.
Tickets will also be made available to guests of the Townsend Hotel and the city’s white-tablecloth restaurants, he said.
“There are a lot of synergies to having a great movie theater to support the restaurants,” and vice versa, Glantz said.
Industry trends
Glantz is looking for the same cross-pollination at the Bloomfield Park development, he said, as he once again considers locating a theater at the site along Square Lake and Telegraph roads at the Bloomfield Township and Pontiac border.
Emagine had proposed a 10-screen theater at the site before construction on the development was halted six years ago. Last month, a joint venture between Southfield-based Redico LLC and California-based PCCP LLC purchased the foreclosure rights to the 87-acre site. The JV plans to foreclose on the property within a year and is determining the best use.
Emagine met with Redico in early November to discuss locating a theater there again, Glantz said.
Focusing on amenities like recliners and full bars “is bringing people back out to the movie theater,” said Ryan Noonan, director of corporate communications for AMC. It’s something the Kansas City-based chain is focusing on at its locations across the country, he said.
Local operators also pointed to the benefits of a location with close proximity to other entertainment offerings.
MJR’s Partridge Creek location fares well as part of what it sees as a destination location, said Dennis Redmer, vice president of operations at Bloomfield Hills-based MJR Theatres Inc.
“I think (Emagine will) do fine, and we’ll continue to do fine,” given the demand from moviegoers, he said.
There are a lot of expected blockbuster movies coming out in the coming year, so “2015 looks really good,” he said.
