From Ken Sain, Employed author
Chandler City’s hopes of turning a major downtown intersection into an entertainment hub may not be dead yet, but thanks to the pandemic, they initially seemed to have taken a blow.
City officials expressed concern about the future of the Flix Brewhouse Theaters on Chandler Boulevard and Arizona Avenue during a city council meeting late last month. At that time, the council agreed to sell the theater to AZ Management and Investment, LLC.
Flix and CEO Allan Reagan filed for bankruptcy last October and court documents show they owe more than $ 70 million to creditors, mostly banks.
“We would prefer it to remain a cinema,” Kim Moyers, the city’s director of cultural development, told the council at the time. “We want some kind of entertainment use. There are many great restaurants in the city center. “
It looks like Moyers granted her wish.
On September 7th – two weeks after the Chandler Council meeting – global real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield announced that AZ Management & Investments, which bought the film house for around $ 7.1 million, was selling it to LOOK Dine-In Cinemas Monrovia has rented.
Eric Wichterman, Brent Mallonee, Mike Coover and Chris Hollenbeck from Cushman & Wakefield represented DT Chandler in the transaction and found the new cinema tenant for the buyer.
Eric Wichterman, Executive Managing Director of Cushman, shared the vision of Moyers and stated, “Our mission was to connect this state-of-the-art theater and brewery building for special purposes with a qualified new owner, either living in the facility or an investor who believes in the future of the cinema industry. “
LOOK Dine-in Cinemas is based in Monrovia, California and was founded just two months ago by Brian Schulz, the founder of another high-end cinema chain called Studio Movie Grill.
Last October, Studio Movie Grill, which owned 33 theaters, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Dallas-based company reportedly received a $ 75 million investment two years ago and was expanding rapidly until the pandemic broke out. At the time of bankruptcy, court documents showed Studio Movie Grill had $ 100,000 in cash.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to offer three more California communities jobs that pay fair wages and a space for each neighborhood to experience great cinema,” said Schultz in a statement as he LOOK Dine-In founded. “I firmly believe in the magic of going to the theater and hope that after a year of isolation we will see more and more communities going to the cinema again.”
Chandler City Council approved the sale of Flix for granting the property a state property lease excise tax. This is a tax incentive given to bringing jobs or certain types of businesses to a desired location.
Any new tenant of the building who wants to do something other than a movie theater would need to get council approval in order to receive the GPLET.
Texas-based Flix opened the Chandler Theater to a great roar in December 2018.
It promised a unique film experience, combined a theater, a microbrewery and a restaurant and was supposed to be the anchor for the 77,000 square meter Overstreet development. Flix had a similar concept to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, which opened in South Chandler in 2016.
As in cinemas across the country, the pandemic devastated the industry. Many cinemas remained closed for months as large studios delayed the release of films and government shutdown orders were in place to contain the spread of the virus.
Flix tried to reopen in September 2020, but was only able to keep its doors open for a few months before closing again.
Both Flix and Alamo national chains filed for bankruptcy protection last year.
While Flix originally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last October to reorganize its finances, some banks owed millions have urged the court to order the company to liquidate all of its assets, court records show. The bankruptcy case has not yet been resolved.
The case marked a major change in Flix’s fortunes.
In 2018, Flix was targeting total sales of $ 50 million – an increase well above the $ 35 million reported in 2017.
By 2000, it was forecast to be $ 100 million as new theaters continued to open in Oklahoma and Texas.
Although some experts predicted last year that the rise of Netflix and Amazon streaming services would bring theaters to the demise, Reagan told local reporters that both theaters and streaming services could thrive.
Flix closed a $ 13 million financing in early 2018 and had an additional $ 13 million in capital.
It was also the anchor of the much-touted Overstreet Project, which city officials said in 2018 would spark a major rejuvenation in downtown Chandler.
Cushman & Wakefield announced in December that the 31,804 square foot Overstreet building, which consists of two separate single storey retail spaces with an adjacent second floor office spanning an inner street between retail stores, is owned by Overstreet Project, LLC, a company Nevada, company was acquired for $ 12.3 million.
“Overstreet is a rare mixed-use property in one of the most sought-after markets in the greater Phoenix area and offers stable, long-term leases,” said Wichterman.
“The project is ideally located on a hard corner along Arizona Avenue, the area’s major thoroughfare, with access from three streets in downtown Chandler, a diverse ‘urban’ setting with hip restaurants, shops and entertainment.”
Overstreet Chandler consists of approximately 58 percent office and 42 percent retail space, Cushman & Wakefield said in a press release, adding:
“The property has state-of-the-art architecture and interior improvements, and also includes a large digital media panel that encloses the corner of the neighboring building. A five-storey public car park with 350 stands provides on-site parking.
“The property is 100 percent rented to a high-quality, synergistic tenant that includes a breakfast hotspot, Mexican food, burgers, tea, ice cream and an industry leader in healthcare reimbursement on the second floor.”
What happens to the former Flix building is important to Chandler’s future. “This corner is not as active as it was before,” said Moyers. “We want to rejuvenate this area. There is definitely a hole there. “
She said that since it is a relatively new building, specifically designed as a theater and brewery, they would prefer a new tenant. But since Flix was out of the picture and the Alamo already had a similar store nearby, it removed the two leading chains as potential tenants.
“There are other groups,” said Moyers. “The film industry as a whole is redefining itself due to COVID. There are some smaller chains that come in and try to leave their mark. “
She had told the city council that the city wants everything that happens to the building to have to do with entertainment if it is not possible to remain a theater.
“The property is currently fully theater-built and there is honestly a lot of capital going on in this building, which is specifically designed for a theater,” said Kevin Mayo, Chandler’s planning administrator.
Moyers said it would be a waste to be anything other than a theater.
“It’s less than 2 years old; it’s in pristine condition, ”said Moyers. “It would be a shame.”
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