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Megamall signs up 18-screen megaplex

AMC Theatres signs with Cypress Creek Town Center, making it the first of what is expected to be many tenants.

By JAMES THORNER
Published September 11, 2005

LAND O'LAKES - Cypress Creek Town Center, pitched as the biggest mall in years to enter the Tampa Bay market, has announced its first tenant, an 18-screen megaplex movie theater.

Competing for tenants with two other giant shopping centers in central Pasco County, Cypress Creek views the deal with AMC Theatres as a vote of confidence for the 1.3-million-square-foot mall.

AMC is the biggest theater chain on Florida's west coast and second only to national leader Regal Cinemas in the number of screens in the United States.

"We were going for the best, and we think that's what we've landed," said Bill Fullington, vice president with the Richard E. Jacobs Group, the company developing the mall.

The targeted opening date for the open-air, villagelike mall is fall 2007. Jacobs has corralled 100 acres southwest of Interstate 75 and State Road 56, a site poised to serve both central Pasco and New Tampa.

"The theater will be one of the mall's anchor positions that you can assume will be very prominent," Fullington said.

Despite slumping movie ticket sales this summer, a dip industry insiders attribute to a weak crop of films, theater chains are locking up sites all over central Pasco.

AMC is the third cinema company since May to announce a new megaplex in Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes, bringing the total number of potential screens to 50.

Marquee Cinemas Inc. announced it would open a 14-screen complex at the Shops at Wiregrass, Cypress Creek's rival at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 56.

Cobb Theatres Inc. joined the fray in June with plans for 18 screens northwest of State Road 54 and Interstate 75. It would be part of a proposed retail and entertainment complex called the Grove at Wesley Chapel.

AMC's planned Cypress Creek megaplex commands the most convenient location of the three, but all three cinemas could succeed if the housing market continues to sizzle, said Patrick Berman, a Tampa real estate broker with contacts among dozens of retailers.

"It does seem a little bit excessive," Berman said of the three competing chains. "But given we predict 30,000-plus new homes in a 3-mile radius, it could be supported."

The AMC deal promises to be the first of many. Jacobs lost two mall-style retailers to the rival Wiregrass project (JCPenney and Dillard's) but is courting those that remain.

Announcing the movie theater Wednesday, Jacobs promised a mall with "major retailers, restaurants, a bookstore and specialty shops." Fullington declined to elaborate.

But Berman said of the three major bookstore chains, Borders, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, only one seems to be on an expansion spree.

"If you're looking for who's going to Cypress Creek mall, I'd say there's a three out of four chance it's Barnes & Noble," he said.

[Last modified September 10, 2005, 09:32:05]