Coming Attraction : Camarillo’s 1st Major Movie Complex Is Readied

Workers scrambled Wednesday to put the finishing touches on a 12-screen Edwards Theatres complex in Camarillo--preparing for the Friday opening of the city’s first major cineplex.

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With many city residents spending their work and leisure hours elsewhere, the $8-million theater complex--to be known as the Edwards Camarillo Palace 12 Cinemas--will offer residents a chance to stay within their city when they look to go out for entertainment, city leaders said.

“I think it’s a part of our maturation as a community,” said Councilwoman Charlotte Craven. “A lot of people still think that you have to leave the city to do anything. With the Edwards project, I think that mind-set will change.”

Councilman Ken Gose echoed Craven, saying he would like to see more opportunities for families to spend time together in the city.

“I’m very glad to see it. We need more things like this in our city,” Gose said. “I like it because of its architecture and I like it because we will be able to see a wide variety of films without having to drive out of the city.”

On Wednesday, one day before a private opening ceremony and two days before the theaters’ public opening, about 100 construction workers were working on the movie house’s final touches under the command of Michael Tiemeyer, the company’s operations director.

“We may well have the last of the painters going out the back door as our guests come through the front door,” Tiemeyer said. “In this business, if it looks like there’s still two weeks of work left, that means we’re almost done.”

The 56,000-square-foot facility sits on a three-acre Ventura Boulevard lot south of the Ventura Freeway between Las Posas Road and Carmen Drive. The complex, which will seat 3,000, will offer only first-run movies and may include art films among its selections, Tiemeyer said.

The cineplex will feature wall-to-wall screens and digital sound equipment projected through an elaborate speaker array in each theater. Other features include a $500,000 imported Italian granite lobby floor, brass ceilings and a two-sided, 70-foot-long concession stand.

Specially designed non-reflective sidewalls are featured in the 12 theaters, which seat 200 to 325 patrons each.

On the complex’s second story, a video game arcade and restrooms are reached by two curving staircases or by elevator.

Tiemeyer said the company was not overly concerned about an 11-screen United Artists multiplex that has recently broken ground in eastern Camarillo’s Mission Oaks area. Completion on that project is expected next summer.

“I think that we’ll feel it, but I think Camarillo and the surrounding region represent a large enough market for both of us,” Tiemeyer said. “Personally, I think when people see this facility, they’ll make a habit of seeing movies here. Everything’s top of the line. You can even get real butter on your popcorn.”