Real estate officials say final theater deal is imminent

Penn is close to reaching an agreement with National Amusements to complete construction on the movie theater at the corner of 40th and Walnut streets, though no official word has yet been given.

Penn officials have been courting National Amusements, part of the entertainment giant Viacom, and Cinebridge, the subsidiary that will be working with Penn in the theater development, since February 2001 and began negotiations with them over the summer.

Though a National Amusements spokesperson could not give any progress updates on the negotiations nor an exact date for when the agreement will be reached, Penn Executive Vice President John Fry speculates that the deal will soon be ready for submission to the University's Board of Trustees.

"We've already outlined the terms of the lease with National Amusements," Fry said. "We're going to bring the project forward for approval by the trustees soon."

With the recent announcement that Fry, the Penn official who spearheaded the movie theater project, will be leaving Penn at the end of the semester to become the new president of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., the project's completion may fall to someone else.

Fry, however, does not see his leaving as an obstacle to the project. "The deal will be well-settled before I go," he said.

National Amusement officials also seemed very confident that the deal will go through without much resistance, despite Fry's imminent departure.

"We've enjoyed working with John Fry and his group on the project and feel confident that the project will continue forward and that his successor will work to bring the lease to a conclusion with us so that the cinema can be opened within a reasonable amount of time pending finalization of the lease," a National Amusements spokesperson said.

While many projected opening dates have been given for the theater, University real estate officials now say they believe it will open next fall.

Originally a joint project between Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas and Penn, theater construction has been greatly slowed in part due to Sundance's withdrawal from the project in November 2000 because its financier, General Cinemas, filed for bankruptcy.

As the original plan with Sundance called for Penn to develop the exterior and Sundance to develop the interior and decor of the theater complex, construction has progressed slowly during the new negotiations.

Cinebridge is the developer of a luxury movie theater complex in Los Angeles called The Bridge, which is similar to what Penn and National Amusements have planned for Penn's theater.

Like The Bridge, Penn and National Amusements hope to make the theater an innovative movie-going experience, though Penn's project will be on a much smaller scale than The Bridge.

As of now, Penn hopes to include two retail units and possibly a restaurant along with six movie screens and a basement area that could possibly be used as classroom space.

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