Home of the Dome

The owners of Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome movie theater on Monday unveiled plans to build a 15-screen multiplex theater, shops and restaurants around the landmark building as part of an estimated $50-million development project.

The single-screen theater, which is crowned by a concrete geodesic dome that rises 72 feet above Sunset Boulevard, will be closed temporarily while it undergoes renovation. The entire project, to be called the Cinerama Dome Entertainment Center, is scheduled to open in mid-1999 if it wins all necessary government approvals, according to Neil Haltrect, vice president of real estate for Los Angeles-based Pacific Theaters.

“We explored the option of replacing the dome itself,” Haltrect said. “Then we realized we could build upon the dome’s [popularity]. It will remain an outstanding place to see movies.”

The nearly six-acre development near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street is one of several entertainment complexes planned for the faded movie capital. On Hollywood Boulevard, for example, Toronto-based developer TrizecHahn Corp. wants to build a $145-million entertainment center near Mann’s Chinese Theater. Business and city officials have also teamed up to retain existing businesses and to attract new development.

Since the area lost ground to Westwood and other entertainment districts, “you might see the pendulum swing back to Hollywood as the place to go see a movie,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “The intensity of development is ratcheting up in Hollywood.”

The Cinerama Dome opened in 1963 with seating for about 1,000 patrons and a movie screen nearly 90 feet wide that was then largest in the world. The theater was designed to screen movies in the wide-screen Cinerama format.

Although it is a frequent site of movie premieres, the single-screen Cinerama Dome is at a competitive disadvantage in an era of multiscreen theaters. Under Pacific’s plans, the parking lot that now surrounds the theater will be home to a 15-screen multiplex and more than 100,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and offices and a fitness center. A parking garage for more than 2,000 cars will also be built.

Single-screen theaters “are not economically viable,” said Haltrect, whose firm operates more than 400 movie screens. The new development “will help take [the Dome] to the next level and keep it viable.”

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