Eastside Business -- Downtown Bellevue Joins Growing Silver-Screen Scene

When the Galleria 11 Cinema opens at the Bellevue Galleria on Friday, it will do more than bring the entertainment center to life.

It also brings downtown Bellevue into the dramatic boom in the movie business on the Eastside.

The number of movie screens has more than doubled since 1994, and still more are on the drawing board. If either of two large developments is built as planned within blocks of the Galleria, the east side of Lake Washington will have three times as many theaters as it had five years ago.

For some time, the area had been clamoring for theaters; now it's unclear how many more can be built without saturating the market.

But the boom reflects the reality that, despite the inroads of television and video, Americans remain enamored with the silver screen. Moviegoers bought more than 40 percent more tickets last year than they did in 1990.

Regal Cinemas last year took over the uncompleted Galleria 11 as a result of its merger with Portland-based Act III Theaters. If the project had not already been under construction, Regal might have built its customary 16 to 18 screens rather than 11, said Phil Zacheretti, Regal's senior vice president of marketing.

The theater is the largest and most important tenant in the 166,000-square-foot Bellevue Galleria at 106th Avenue Northwest, which Zacheretti described as "a hotbed for entertainment and retail." Four restaurants have already opened in the Galleria: Bob's Seafood Joint, Hooters, Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, and Houlihan's.

As with Regal's other new theaters in Issaquah and Auburn, all auditoriums feature stadium seating, digital sound, high-back chairs with cupholder armrests, plus a large lobby and concession stand.

Since downtown Bellevue was left screenless when the John Danz Theatre closed in 1994, developers and theater chains have teamed up on several developments. Vancouver, B.C.-based Schroeder Properties' Galleria is the only one built so far.

Several other projects have died or been delayed, but two others are in the permit process. If built, they will bring 30 to 34 more movie screens.

AMC plans to operate 18 movie auditoriums in Lincoln Square, the Vancouver, B.C.-based Westbank Properties development proposed for the block between the Bellevue Galleria and Bellevue Square.

Also, Bill Doern, president and chief executive of General Cinema, said this week his company intends to operate 12 to 16 screens in Meydenbauer Place near the Interstate 405-Northeast Eighth Street interchange. The complex would include several adult-only "premium cinemas" featuring meals, beer and wine.

"General Cinema is very enthused and excited about this project. We feel Bellevue has been very underserved by state-of-the-art cinema complexes for some time now," Doern said.

Either of the two projects would bring a new player into the Eastside, where the movie business is dominated by two companies: Regal Cinemas and Cineplex Odeon, which recently was acquired by Loew's Cineplex Entertainment.

Eastside theater attendance remains robust, landlords say, despite new theaters in Issaquah, Redmond and Woodinville. But continued construction has affected older theaters, and there is concern that competition may get tougher yet.

"Crossroads Cinema is doing very well, but not as well as they did five years ago before there were theaters in Issaquah or Redmond or Woodinville," said Crossroads Shopping Center owner Ron Sher.

Sher expects the Galleria 11 to take even more business from Crossroads. Nevertheless, Regal Cinemas, which operates Crossroads, sees business as strong. As part of a $100 million effort to upgrade its theaters nationwide, the company plans to install stadium seating at Crossroads and boost the number of screens from eight to 11.

Crossroads is midway between the Galleria and two other multiplexes, Bella Bottega and Redmond Town Center.

The Eastside's most recent theater is Cineplex Odeon's Woodinville 12, which opened last year.

The Eastside movie scene is a far cry from 1979, when David Schooler was hired by Bellevue-based SRO to build several new theaters. Bellevue's only movie emporiums were the single-screen John Danz and Bel-Vue theaters and the three-screen Crossroads Theater.

Schooler built theaters at Totem Lake and Factoria before SRO expanded the Factoria theater, sold off its theater holdings and moved into the real-estate business.

Asked if there are too many theaters, Schooler said, "Not yet." But if two more multiplexes go into downtown Bellevue, the market will be overbuilt, he said.

Seattle Times movie reviewer John Hartl contributed to this report