Theater’s Reopening Remains Uncertain

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By Cassandra Reinhart, Special to the Independent

Laguna Beach’s only movie theater is again listed for sale, as almost six months have come and gone since the target date to reopen.

The building, centrally-located at 162 S. Coast Highway, is directly across from Main Beach and was closed in August of 2015.  The theater was expected to reopen in mid-December of last year under lease to Vintage Cinemas, of San Diego, but has yet to open its doors.

“The property owner and the city are actually cooperating and having meetings as to what is the best direction for the place,” said Vintage Cinema’s chief executive Lance Alspaugh.  “Once they figure if it is going to stay a movie theater then we have all got something to work with.”

The now vacated South Coast Cinema.
The now vacated South Coast Cinema.

The 15,890 sq. foot property is again listed for sale for $14.2 million, according to real estate website LoopNet. That works out to about $894 per sq. foot for what is described as an “iconic coastal California theatre property for sale or for lease…a multi-use property consists of a movie theatre and two retail stores that surround a central courtyard.”  Listing broker, Linda O’Conner, said all questions about the property were to be answered by its owner, New York-based Leslie Blumberg, who did not return the Indy’s calls for comment.

The South Coast Cinema closed in August of 2015, due to a lease dispute between Blumberg and the previous operator, Regency Theaters. Six months later, another theater operator expressed interest in the property, but a lease was never finalized. At the time Blumberg was seeking a luxury theater company to buy the historic 1922 movie house.

Vintage entered into a year lease with Blumberg, something Alspaugh describes as more of a “retainer,” and had hoped to work with the city and to attract investors going forward. To prepare for reopening, Vintage made some cosmetic improvements to the exterior and interior last fall, including small sections of improved seating in each auditorium.  But he says it really needs more.

“I don’t think it is habitable,” Alspaugh said.  “It needs new seating, digital projectors.  It would be truly wrong to let people into the theater in its current condition.”

Academy-Award nominated documentary filmmaker Greg MacGillivray of Laguna Beach’s MacGillivray Freeman Films says he was interested in taking over the theater three years ago when it was first listed for sale in hopes of turning it into an IMAX theater, but the plans never materialized.

“Leslie and I started talking about me and other partners buying the theatre to operate it,” MacGillivray said.  “To make it sustainable is very hard nowadays, to make enough money from a theater to make it work.  Forty-percent of the theatres across America have closed in the last 15 years.”

MacGillivray used to lease the theater from Blumberg’s family 50 years ago, when he first started showing documentary surf films at the venue.  But he says times have changed, and because people can get movies and high quality entertainment at home and on their handheld devices anywhere, you have to offer an audience more of an overall experience to get their business.

“You have to have other income sources to make it work, a restaurant and a bar; there is no way it can stay open as just a movie theater,” MacGillivray said.  “There is just no way to make it pay.”

Alspaugh says he has gotten calls from many residents wondering about the theater’s fate, and is overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm expressed by the community.  One of those calls was from Sandy Taylor, who has been a Laguna Beach resident for 17 years.  She says she goes to a movie at least every month and wishes she didn’t have to drive to Aliso Viejo.

“We loved the place,” Taylor said.  “The theater had first run movies, so we liked that.  But even if they made it an art theater, it would be good.”

Resident Matthew Fiorenza also wants the theater reopened, but would love to see it as a live music venue.  He says anything is better than letting it sit vacant in such a prime spot across from Main Beach.

“The Havianas and the macaroon place, it’s just weird,” Fiorenza said.   “The homeless people hang out there.  It could be so great.”

City planners say as long as the building keeps its historic character it can be repurposed to anything under adaptive reuse.  Developers are required to meet federal requirements for refurbishing historic structures.  MacGillivray hopes it stays a theater.

“I think a lot of people really miss the theater, the social aspect and the fun to drop in and see a film on the big screen,” MacGillivray said.  “The communal experience of watching a movie is something that you can’t get at home, and something that people who know entertainment know is important.”

Vintage Cinemas owns and runs three other historic properties: The Vista Theatre, with one screen in Hollywood; the Los Feliz 3 Cinemas, in Los Angeles; and the Village Theatres, with three screens on Coronado Island in San Diego.

Alspaugh would not discuss the details of Blumberg’s deliberations, but believes a direction for the theater will be in place prior to the end of the year.

“We remain excited about the future potential for the Laguna Twin,” Alspaugh said.  “Right now there is too much indecision on what is the best course of action for everybody.  Until they figure that out, you can’t open it halfway.  You have to put some money into

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1 COMMENT

  1. Really the only viable alternative is a mixed-use facility, and that would be kind of cool: a movie theatre, Comedy Club, playhouse, even live music, operating on different nights or different times the year… Unfortunately that would take very creative and out-of-the-box thinking, something our city seems to lack as of late.

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