November 27, 2007
Upscale Movieland is coming to North Richmond
2 Comments »There has been a lot of talk about a new theater/retail complex coming to the former Richmond Steel building on North Boulevard just south of the Diamond. (Since way back in May of 2006 and as recently as Style Weekly’s breaking news last week on the project.)
Today, that talk turned into action. Richmond.com and the Times-Dispatch have plenty of details on today’s groundbreaking and Bow Tie Partners’ plans for the 17-screen complex.
Richmond.com was on the scene today for the groundbreaking:
With the scent of hot buttered popcorn in the air, city officials and officers from Manhattan-based theater development group Bow Tie Partners gathered at the former Richmond Locomotive and Machine Works building at the corner of Leigh Street and the Boulevard to officially unveil plans for Movieland at Boulevard Square, a multi-screen movie cinema and entertainment complex.
Scheduled for completion in early 2009, the 52,000-square-foot entertainment center will feature an upscale 17 screen, 2,850-seat cinema as well as 12,000 square feet of specialty retail space and a detached 6,000 square-foot restaurant. According to the developers, all 17 of the auditoriums will feature stadiums seating and custom designed wood and leather seats, which apparently are a signature feature of all Bow Tie Cinemas.
Besides the seating, the luxury extends to the concession stand, where in addition to real butter for the popcorn the theater will also offer a variety of coffees and teas and hot food offerings like pizza and fresh baked pretzels.
Though the new theater will offer many amenities not normally found in movie theaters, Bow Tie partner Ben Moss emphatically announced that the Richmond location will pointedly not offer two things commonly found at the movies these days.
“Movieland will have no video or arcade games anywhere in the facility, which is true of all Bow Tie Cinemas, and Movieland will have no onscreen advertising,” he said.
“The whole mission of Bow Tie Cinemas is to return style and elegance to the movie going experience and we think that video games are loud, noisy and somewhat antithetical to people having a stylish and elegant experience in our lobbies. The same goes for our auditoriums. We think that advertising is something that our customers didn’t bargain for when they bought their ticket. We think it is offensive and that it really interferes with the experience that we are trying to deliver.”





[...] Renderings of new movie theater Richmond residents have seen the huge banner for Movieland, a new movie theater on North Boulevard from Bow-Tie Partners. Now, they can get their first look at the interior of the 17-screen theater, set to open in early 2009.Several renderings have been posted on the Bow-Tie Cinemas website, showing the main lobby of the massive multiplex.NY-based Bow-Tie Partners is calling the development “Movieland at Boulevard Square.” The 52,000 square-foot theater will feature 2,850 seats, with 12,000 sf set aside for specialty retail and an additional 6,000 sf available for a detached restaurant. BizSense first announced the story when the banner went up last month. The theater will also do away with on-screen advertising. [...]
I’m so excited that there will be a local theatre that young people can go to. Knowing that this will be the start for something good to come. It will also be another attraction… for turist and locals.