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Weather plagues opening of multiplex in Pinellas Park

The revamped movie house has been delayed by all manner of bad weather. It's set to open early next month.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published March 27, 2005

PINELLAS PARK - Movie lovers should keep their fingers crossed: With some luck and a lot of sunshine, the cineplex at the former Pinellas ParkSide mall could reopen early next month.

"We're hoping for April 8," said David Phillips, chief financial officer of R/C Theatres, owner of the 16 screens. "Barring another five or six days of rain . . . they'll all open."

When they do, moviegoers will see some changes in the multiplex. One is the name. It will be Parkplace Movies 16, rather than ParkSide 16. The new name will play off the name change of ParkSide mall to the Shoppes at Park Place.

For patrons, the most obvious difference will be the entrance: It's on the first floor now and on the north side of the building.

"We got rid of those daggone escalators," Phillips said.

In doing that, the lobby is larger and shaped a bit differently. The game room is also a bit bigger.

The other huge change is the parking. With a dying mall that had few customers, parking was always available.

And it was awkward with some spaces at the bottom of a hill that forced customers to either trudge up the incline or march up a long flight of steps to get to the second-floor entrance. On crowded nights, some folks had to park on the other side of the mall, forcing a long trek through the building to get to the cinema.

"Now it's just this one sea of parking in front of the theater," Phillips said. In all, the changes are just pluses for moviegoers, he said.

The first movies will likely include two new films scheduled to open April 8. One is Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz. The other is Fever Pitch, with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon.

The multiplex closed at the beginning of August to allow bulldozers to raze the old ParkSide mall to make way for the Shoppes at Park Place. When it closed, the goal was to reopen in four months.

But bad weather - multiple hurricanes and more recent rain - plagued the project, putting construction about four months behind. As late as last Wednesday, theater officials were hoping the facility would be able to reopen April 1. But rain once more delayed things, and the reopening has been put off until April 8. Even then, that date is not set in stone, said Charles Sullivan, vice president of Boulder Venture South LLC, the mall developers.

Builders, he said, need a run of good weather to get the theaters ready. The rain prevented workers from applying the outside coating to the theater. And Friday, other workers were scurrying to get the parking area paved.

Once the theaters open, Sullivan and Phillips said, active construction areas will be blocked off for safety. So folks should not worry about coming onto the property.

"It's not like you're going to have to park beside a backhoe," Phillips said.

[Last modified March 27, 2005, 00:34:19]