New theater under construction
WESTFIELD LOUIS JOLIET MALL
JOLIET -- Construction began this week on a 14-screen Cinemark theater complex at Westfield Louis Joliet mall, officials announced Wednesday.
Some site utility work began Monday, said Bob Koys, development director for the Westfield Group, which owns Westfield Louis Joliet mall. The project is expected to be completed by May 2009, he added.
Artist's rendering submitted by Cinemark South
The project calls for the three-screen Super Saver Cinema to be torn down and replaced with a 50,000 square-foot, 14-screen, state-of-the-art digital, stadium seating theatre. Super Saver will close sometime in July to allow for the construction, Koys said.
The entrance, the nearby food court and all other entrances to the mall will remain open throughout construction, he stressed.
The new theater will feature:
• Self-service snacks including popcorn, ice cream, personal pizzas and Starbucks beverages.
• Online ticketing and a ticket kiosk in the lobby so customers can bypass the box office.
• E-mail updates on movie showtimes. Customers can register for the updates at www.cinemark.com.
The 900,000-square-foot mall opened on what was then Joliet's far West Side in 1979. The new theater's opening a year from now will be part of the mall's 30th anniversary celebration, Westfield officials have said.
Plano, Texas-based Cinemark also owns the Movies 8 and Movies 10 on the mall's perimeter. Cinemark spokesman James Meredith said in a March Herald News article he did not know the fate of the two existing theaters once the new one opens.
Movies 10 opened in March 1996. Movies 8 opened in 1990.
The Westfield-Cinemark project is part of a redevelopment plan approved by the Joliet City Council last year. The council also approved a 114,000-square-foot retail addition to the mall, but Westfield officials have no word yet on those plans.
Cinemark isn't the only company adding theater screens in Joliet. Regal Entertainment Group of Knoxville, Tenn., has agreed to build an 18-screen theater complex with at least 3,000 seats at the Bridge Street Town Centre mall planned for Interstates 80 and 55. Bridge Street was in limbo for a while, but the city council on Tuesday took the vote that a developer said will "kick-start" the 314-acre shopping, hotel and office complex.
The council approved a development agreement that finances a new interchange for the project and annexations to bring the land into the city of Joliet. Work on that project could begin later this year, and the first stores are expected to open in 2011.
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