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Mesbur & Smithians........ I'm looking at a lot in a downtown that is available and the city is truly courting me to build a theatre there. Can you give me a guesstimate on what you could comfortably build? It's a bit odd in shape: 125' faces the opposite face of 120' X 93' facing 84' .......or in other words it's not a rectangle or a square my friends.

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

Mike

We have to make a lot of assumptions here, but here goes. You have about 10,840 square feet of land area. We assume that one of the short sides is on a street, and perhaps you have access to a rear lane for exit purposes. We also assume you don't require any setbacks on the property lines, and are not required to provide parking.

If you build a small multiplex, all on one level, we figure you can build either a twin or triplex with between 500 and 600 seats. This assumes either stadiums or conventional seating. The auditorium sizes would be 2 at 200+ and 1 at 125+-.

Hope this helps.

This is a zero setback with grass, sidewalk, alley, and alley for sides. Exits can be onto and out to ground level. I'm always in the more is better. Is there a possibility of a 4 screen with 1 large, 1 medium and 2 small?
Let's talk on the phone at 800-545-8956 but for the help of others could you answer here as well.

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

be aware that in many locations nowdays one must provide parking on the owners land for a certain number of cars per seat

Gord

It's true that most new cinemas require parking on site. Mike has assured me that parking isn't required in his case. We have done many theatres, particularly in the centre of small towns where no parking is required for a number of reasons:

- The town is so anxious to have a new cinema in the centre to help revitalize the town that they will waive parking requirements
- Often, there is plenty of available parking which generally isn't used at night
- Many cities have no parking requirements for commercial uses, and often, a cinema is classified as commercial (not here in Toronto, however)

In Mike's case, and in another project we are doing in Massachusetts, the site for the cinema is right next door to a parking garage.

In most inner cities and downtowns of even the smallest cities there is usually no parking requirements for anything. I could open a 5 screen in my little town and not have one parking discussion. in the downtown. Out of town and that's all you talk about.

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

Mike

Thanks for confirming what I wrote about parking. We have designed theatres in major urban centres where no parking was required. This includes New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Chicago and others.