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Marquee Cinemas axes Shops at Wiregrass plans

Insiders speculate an announcement that AMC Theaters will be building nearby prompted the withdrawal.

By JAMES THORNER
Published December 16, 2005

WESLEY CHAPEL - It's lights out for a proposed 14-screen cinema that had been scheduled to open in Wesley Chapel in 2007.

Seven months after Marquee Cinemas announced it wanted to build the theater complex at The Shops at Wiregrass, the Beckley, W.V., company has backed out of the deal.

"As of today we do not have a deal with them," said Jim Richardson with Forest City Commercial Group, one of two corporate partners building the retail complex northeast of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 56.

Richardson said his company has reconfigured the retail mix of the proposed 750,000-square foot "lifestyle center" to exclude a cinema.

Real estate insiders speculated the main reason for Marquee's withdrawal was the subsequent announcement that megachain AMC Theaters would build down the highway.

Marquee, a family-owned regional chain with fewer than 30 theaters, has specialized in capturing smaller markets passed over by larger cinema companies. Locations include Kingsport, Tenn., Scranton, Pa., and Aurora, Ohio. Marquee officials did not return calls for comment.

The Shops at Wiregrass targets the central Pasco County/New Tampa market. With thousands of new homes a year and higher-than-average household incomes, the area is attracting the biggest names in retail.

Enter AMC. With about 450 theaters in the United States, the chain announced in August it would build an 18-screen multiplex at Cypress Creek Town Center.

The town center is a 1.3-million-square-foot outdoor mall proposed for 100 acres southwest of Interstate 75 and SR 56.

Both Cypress Creek and The Shops at Wiregrass plan late 2007 openings, though Wiregrass got a jump on its rival by opening a solitary JCPenney this fall.

But in the battle of the movie theaters, Cypress Creek can claim a victory over the competition. AMC's site is about 3 miles from Marquee's old site, at a location more accessible to interstate traffic.

Only one other theater rival is left in central Pasco. Cobb Theatres Inc., another smaller chain, would like to open 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.

[Last modified December 16, 2005, 00:54:19]