AMC Entertainment Inc., one of the nation’s largest movie theater chains, is buying 50 acres in suburban Plano, Texas, where it plans to build a 30-screen movie theater, shopping center and entertainment complex.
The 6,000-seat theater, to be built at the southwest corner of Preston Road and State Highway 121, would be equal in size to a 30-screen theater in Antwerp, Belgium, which currently is considered to be the world’s biggest cinema complex.
The Plano theater will be 20 percent larger than the Dallas area’s current biggest theater, AMC’s 24-screen, 5,000-seat Grand movie theater on Stemmons Freeway in northwest Dallas.
“It (the 5,000-seat Grand) has exceeded our expectations, and we are responding to the consumers’ needs and desires with these larger megaplexes,” said Edward de Avila, a real estate officer in AMC’s Kansas City, Mo., headquarters. “What we anticipate we will create (in Plano) is a regional entertainment center.
“Our plan is to build the theater as quickly as possible, and the phase-two portion of the center will follow.”
Along with the huge cinema, which will contain more than 100,000 square feet of space, AMC Entertainment plans to develop a 200,000-square-foot shopping center with restaurants and retail space.
De Avila said the retail complex will open shortly after the movie theater debuts in 1996.
“We believe that there are many restaurants and retailers that would like to follow us to these projects,” he said.
The Grand, which opened in May, is expected to attract 1.75 million theatergoers in its first year of operation.
Just as significant as AMC Entertainment’s project is its location. The planned entertainment and shopping complex is the first major development at that intersection.
While the intersection is now just a crossroads in vacant fields, Collin County planners and developers predict it will one day be among the busiest commercial corners in the area.
The intersection is just north of Electronic Data Systems’ and J.C. Penney’s huge headquarters complexes. And nearby residential communities in Plano, Frisco, McKinney and Denton County are some of the fastest-growing population centers in the nation.
“We looked at locations south of there, but to go up to that corner was more attractive to AMC,” said Robert Bagwell, who represents the theater chain in buying the location. “This location just gets better in five years and 10 years. There won’t be another corner like this.”
AMC has found with the Grand and other large theaters that customers are willing to drive farther (as much as 15 to 20 miles) to these complexes, de Avila said.
Brokers estimate that AMC Entertainment is paying more than $10 million for the Plano tract. Although it’s too early for cost estimates on the entire project, the smaller Grand cost about $20 million.
The theater chain has contracted to buy the strategic corner from Collin County’s Christie family, which has owned the land and other property in the area for almost 80 years. The Christies have turned down numerous sale offers for the land for years and still are farming part of the property.
“There’s a little cotton left on it, but the milo is already in,” said Dan Christie, who said he has mixed emotions about selling the land. “But at some point it is time to do something, and we felt this was the right time.”
Real estate brokers in the area agree.
“There are plenty of rooftops and demographics up there to support this type of project,” said land broker Rex Glendenning, who has sold several large tracts in the area to investors. “There are now 15,000 people in Frisco, and more than that in the Colony. And West Plano is still growing.”
AMC Entertainment currently is building 12 major, multiscreen movie theaters across the country, and de Avila said that the company has another dozen or so on the drawing boards. When it opened this summer, AMC’s 5,000-seat Grand Theater in Dallas was billed as the largest cinema complex in the country.
Because of its size, AMC Entertainment said it will be able to show art and specialty films at its new Plano cinema, along with recent-release movies.
“We also have the ability to show films that, while past their peaks, are still of interest to the public,” AMC senior vice president Frank Stryjewski said.
AMC Entertainment officials said construction of the Plano project won’t preclude development of another 24-screen movie theater the company has announced for a new shopping mall planned nearby.
