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Regal Champlain Center theater closing for upgrades
posted by
CSWalczak
on
July 12, 2010 at 7:46 am
PLATTSBURGH, NY — The Regal Champlain Center 8 will close on July 12, and is scheduled to reopen in the fall. Stadium seating and digital projection will be installed. The theater originally opened in 1987.
The brief story is at WPTZ.
Comments (4)
They aren’t adding screens,isn’t that what is suppose to happen.Why would you close all the screens,Makes no sense.
I’ve seen this when a theater upgrades and they only have one mens/women’s room that they are redoing along with the rest of the complex. Clearview (who didn’t upgrade to stadium) closed a few theaters in Northern NJ at various points, for a few weeks at a time while they upgraded seating, restrooms and concession stands. Regal is probably going to overhaul the whole Hoyts plex and make it look like a new Regal (if it’s anything like other Hoyts it’s probably, ugly, 80’s, and utilitarian.)
Possibly asbestos removal is involved; possibly too, pouring concrete for the new risers to support the stadium seating would be disruptive. I am sure Regal weighed the costs of a partial versus a total shutdown. This place must be a money-maker though, or else I doubt that Regal would be making this investment rather than building a whole new theater.
I worked the design and opening phase for Hoyt’s as a regional manager. I doubt there is asbestos in a facility built this late in the 80’s.
If they are getting stadium, steel risers need to be built. What seems especially odd to me is closing in the summer months. For all of my theatre years you did this type of work in the fall or after the holidays…