Michael Sadowski - Pocono Record WriterMay 03, 2006
Trust them — it's going to be open.  | Norman Adie, new owner of the Foxmoor Cinemas in Marshalls Creek, is confident that the theaters will be done in time for the grand opening on Friday. (Keith R. Stevenson/Pocono Record) |
At the end of last week, the floors were still uncarpeted and workers were busy sealing cracks in the walls while boxes of supplies stood stacked in the lobby. But the Foxmoor7 Cinemas should be ready for the planned grand re-opening celebration on Friday.
"I've done this 20 times before," said Norman Adie, new owner of the Foxmoor Village theater and a veteran New York City movie house entrepreneur. "From what I see, we'll be ready to open Friday. It's tough to judge now, because the last 48 hours is when it all comes together."
The movie house closed in November, with the previous owners blaming poor business and a lack of traffic in the entire Foxmoor Village complex, located on Route 209 in Middle Smithfield Township, north of Marshalls Creek.
The closing of the movie theater, in addition to a number of empty store fronts, fed speculation that the entire village shopping center was ready to go under.
Adie swooped in to lease out the movie theater and an adjoining store space, where he plans to put an arcade. He also is working to bring other stores to the village.
"He's showing two stores," said Stephen Snyder, a Lehigh Valley investor and a partner in the theater. "We're impressed with the potential of the area."
With a robust list of summer movies on the horizon, the new owners are hoping for an upturn after slow sales at the box office nationwide last year. The summer slate includes can't-miss comic book adaptations "Superman Returns" and "X-Men: Last Stand" and bankable movies with high expectations like "The Da Vinci Code" and "Mission: Impossible III."
And that's just in the early part of the summer movie season.
These movies and others will be shown at the refurbished Foxmoor theaters, which are undergoing an $800,000 renovation that includes new seats, new carpeting and new projection systems.
The five second-floor theaters are to open Friday, with the two downstairs theaters opening May 25 in time for Memorial Day weekend, according to Snyder.
Adie is sure everything will be ready.
"Yeah, now I'm calm," Adie said. "I'll probably be going crazy at midnight on Thursday. But it will be open." |
