Penn close to striking theater deal

In a move that may jump-start the stalled theater project on 40th Street, movie chain National Amusements will present a proposal to the University next week, according to Penn Executive Vice President John Fry. Penn has been negotiating with the Dedham, Mass.-based company since March, in hopes of once again giving life to the former Sundance Cinemas venture. "I'm fairly certain I'm going to get a proposal within the week," Fry said yesterday. "What that proposal says is to be determined. I think they are very reasonable people and I'm hoping that the proposal will be reasonable." Included in the proposal will be the amount of capital National Amusements plans to contribute. In anticipation of a potential deal, construction on the theater's exterior has already resumed. "We're confident that we're going to find a tenant and as a consequence we have started construction again," said Tom Lussenhop, the University's top real estate official. "We're evaluating construction progress on a week by week basis." While construction is moving along on the exterior, Fry said that interior work will not resume until the University signs the lease with a new partner and decides on necessary changes. Officials from National Amusements came down to preview the site last week, Fry said. National Amusements offers mostly mainstream films at its 1,390 theaters across the nation. General Cinemas, the main financial partner in the former Sundance deal, declared bankruptcy in October and announced in November that it would abandon the project, the cornerstone of the University's revitalization plans along 40th Street. Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas soon followed, leaving Penn forced to find a new partner in the project. The original plans for the complex included a restaurant, outdoor cafe, tapas bar, espresso bar, gardens, a lecture hall and a reflecting pool. Fry would not specify which elements of that initial plan are still viable. "We'll have to do some design and planning," he said. "[National Amusements] will probably want some modifications made. The question is how they want to lay out the space inside. Hopefully, we will move on that as quickly as possible." Fry maintained that the movie theater will keep its original bent towards independent films but add mainstream fare as well. "We're not going to be strictly independent," he said. "It will be a mix of independent film and national productions. I think that in the long term, it will be better for everyone."

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