Cinemark North Park Plaza 3

The Cinemark North Park Plaza 3 Theatre was a venue that operated for just over 25 years under different operators. The theater started as the first new-build hardtop since 1949 in Brownsville; but the cinema was beaten by two months as the first new cinema to open when the twin screener in Amigoland Mall opened for United Artists Theatre Circuit (UATC) in February of 1974. The North Park Plaza theatre operated from 1974 to 2000 and remained in a frozen state until 2025 when the North Park Plaza was rebooted as the Sabal Palm Market Center. The space was converted to a single auditorium music space called The Livivo Music Hall in 2026.

The North Park Plaza project was announced in 1970 and anchored by a Kroger Family Store, Kroger’s subdivision of one-stop shop, big box stores. Kroger’s opened the 57,000 square foot store on November 2, 1970. The remainder of the Plaza was conceptualized and leasing beginning in Fall of 1971. Interstate / ABC Cinema signed on as the cinema operator. The $2.2 million addition finally took hold in 1973 with $500,000 going to the 944-seat duplex - a 398 seat auditorium and a larger 546 seat auditorium. The interior of the venue was identical to the ABC Cinema 1 & 2 at the Morgan Plaza Center in Harlingen according to developer Fausto Yturria Jr. who built and sublet the theater.

Constructed during the Suburban Luxury Cinema exhibition era, the twin featured lots of free parking, comfortable seating with wider aisles, and was housed within a modern, suburban strip shopping center. Interstate closed the venerable downtown Majestic Theatre at the end of its 25-year leasing agreement closing with a ‘Farewell Day’ on May 1, 1974 with “Silence” and “Seal Island.” The circuit replaced it with the ABC Cinema 1 & 2 opening on May 3, 1974 with two big Christmas 1973 this in “The Exorcist” and “The Sting”. Two original Majestic-ers made the move to the new venue in Carmen Abete and Raul Davilla. In November of 1978, Plitt Southern took over the ABC Interstate operations rebranding here as the Plitt North Park Plaza Twin.

In 1979, Plitt would add a triplex at the new Sunrise Mall. Additionally, Plitt split both the Morgan Plaza and the North Park Plaza venues into triplexes as they remained pretty much identical. The Brownsville theater was renamed as the Plitt North Park Plaza 3. Plitt also took over United Artists’ Harlingen and Brownsville locations effective October 5, 1985 to get a stronghold in the Valley. Just two months later, Cineplex Odeon took over the Plitt Southern operations in December of 1985 with the Valley-area venues all still marketed under the Plitt nameplate.

Cinemark took on the Plitt Southern locations in 1987 including the North Park Plaza. Cinemark downgraded the venue to a sub-run $1.50 discount house. Cinemark operated with very low prices while paying a very low monthly leasing fee. But the Megaplex era found Cinemark announcing a new 16-screen venue in Harlingen and a ten-plex at the Sunrise Mall that opened in 1999 and 2000, respectively. These venues replaced all three Valley triplexes: the Sunrise Mall triple, the Morgan Plaza triple in Harlingen, and the Cinemark North Park Plaza.

The North Park Plaza faltered in the 21st Century with Kroger moving onward and the shopping center moving into greyfield status. Pictures in the 2010’s showed the venue in exactly the same state inside as it was in 2000 with the exterior looking virtually the same, as well. As noted above, however, that finally changed in 2025 with the center’s vibrant rebirth under new ownership as the Sabal Palm Market Center and the cinema’s retrofit as a live music venue.

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