Palace Stadium 12
8325 Copley Drive,
Cornelius,
NC
28031
8325 Copley Drive,
Cornelius,
NC
28031
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Theatre closed on December 21st, 2003 after Eastern Federal buys it for the sole purpose of closing a competing cinema.
Palace Stadium 12 closing Wed, Dec 31, 2003 – 51 · The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina) · Newspapers.com
The Palace Stadium 12 opened on October 13th, 2000. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
I suppose they are. Love the humor.
I bet the church services are very uplifting!!
And the congregation members are called elevators!
I saw this building go through many transformations. I remember seeing movies here in the early 2000’s. For a while, it sat there unchanged. I believe it opened up under new ownership but it was quickly closed (Don’t quote me on that). When I was in high school, the building was turned into The Bonu5 Room, which was a live music venue for young, local bands and musicians. I always wanted to go see a show but I never got around to it. I think it closed right around the time I graduated and the owners opened up a different location. Now it’s an Elevation Church.
My understanding is that the refurbished Movies at the Lake and the Palace were killing each other. Supposedly the sale of the Palace to Eastern Federal was negotiated. EF then closed it down to protect their Movies at the Lake. The Palace was supposedly the nicer cinema, but it was suggested that the ego was involved on the part of EF in which theater was closed. Could well have been more of economic decision,though. I seem to recall that the Palace was built so that if its days as a cinema came to an end, the building could be stripped and leave a large flat floored building for other uses.
This article states that the first tenant of this former theater’s space will be a church: View link
The site with artist’s rendering is posted with a Jan 11, 2010 comment.
Chuck: I’ve seen this former cinema and the last I knew it was going to be some sort of art venue/gallery. If I find the website for this concept, I will email. A NC artist friend of mine might know the current status, too.
It is called, competition KILLED IT.. I suspect the proximity of the new Regal Stadium and possible split booking zone allowed for it to not be able to compete for the big movies anymore.
I am not sure on the seat counts on the auditoriums, but for it to be stadium, probably a retrofit makes them smaller.
It appeared recently on a listing thru a realtor’s website, and the info sent to me stated that it was stadium seating which the seats were in great condition.. 2 screens were damaged, all other building issues were in good shape, and a new owner would need to bring in booth and concession equipment, along with computers and cash registers to re-open as a cinema.
Not sure if the development idea got halted for some reason, but I am not from the area, and am not familiar with who the original owner of this location was.
And a great site with artist rendering of how it will look!
Good news then!
Looks to be saved, and now they are leasing space.
Now called Lake Norman Creative Arts Center.
View link
longislandmovies: I believe the demise of this theatre came down to….location, location, location.
This was a great 12 screen multiplex decorated in a wonderfully cheesy Egyptian motif. The outside was standard fake stucco but the inside was pretty interesting especially considering it was built in a time when most new theaters didn’t receive any ornamentation at all. A couple of the bigger theaters had what was billed as radius stadium seating which was simply curved rows but it made for great sight lines. Stadium seating is usually done with straight rows but the extra effort put into the radius effect here was a great touch. I was very sad to see this theater close after being open less than 5 years. I considered it the best new multiplex in the Charlotte area but I think the owners found it hard to complete with the big national chains that dominate movie going in Charlotte.
Longislandmovies, It closed in 2004 when it could keep up with Eastern Federal`s (Regal) Movies at Birkdale 16, which opened in May of 2001.
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THIS THEATER???
Here is another view:
http://tinyurl.com/ywdubg