Henderson cinema getting $4 million makeover, could reopen in March

A movie theater has sat vacant for eight years in the once-bustling Green Valley Town Center, but that could soon change.

Galaxy Theatres is giving the site a $4 million makeover and plans to reopen the eight-screen complex as early as March.

Rafe Cohen, co-owner of the California-based company, attended a Henderson Planning Commission meeting Thursday night, when the panel approved a conditional use permit that will allow the sale of beer and wine to moviegoers at the new business.

"Now we can go forward with confidence and spend our money," Cohen said after the meeting.

Members of the Planning Commission expressed support for the new business, which will be open to all ages, before voting in favor of the permit.

"It would be nice to have a business like this back up and running in that facility," Commissioner Todd Howell said.

Commissioner Dan Stewart said he had never heard of a movie theater selling alcohol, but "obviously it works elsewhere."

In Las Vegas, Rave Motion Pictures at Town Square serves alcohol, including cocktails, but patrons may only consume it in the lobby's lounge area or during special screenings for those 21 and older.

This will be Galaxy's 13th theater, and about half of its existing businesses, including one in Carson City, serve alcohol.

Cohen said Galaxy has been operating its Carson City theater for five years "without a complaint." He said its theater at the Cannery in North Las Vegas conducted a brief experiment with beer sales a few years ago but stopped because of a lack of interest.

Attorney John Marchiano assured the Planning Commission that the new Henderson theater will not use cocktail waitresses to serve alcohol. All alcohol sales will take place at the bar counter.

"There is absolutely no interaction between the alcohol service and any minor," Marchiano told the commission.

In a letter sent to the city in September, Marchiano argued that the main reason people will come to the theater is to watch a movie, not to drink alcohol. He added that alcohol sales will model all other theater concessions.

"Patrons purchase, prior to the movie beginning, and then more often than not, do not leave the auditorium until the movie is over," the lawyer wrote.

Cohen said the new theater will be the first of its kind in Nevada. The company is removing the old seats and installing stadium seating that features the "Galaxy ultra chair," a $700 reclining chair with a power footrest.

"It's a big easy chair, except it's motorized," Cohen said.

He said rows of seats in modern theaters typically are no more than 4 feet wide, but rows in the new theater will be 7 feet wide, allowing patrons enough room to pass even when a footrest is extended.

The theater will show first-run movies, Cohen said, and its tickets will be "competitively priced."

"There's no up-charge premium for the chairs," he added.

Cohen said the company wanted to bring something unique to the shopping center.

"If it was just a regular movie theater, I don't think we would have been interested," he said.

Cohen predicts the new theater will help revive the area. He estimated that 300,000 to 400,000 people will visit the theater each year. About two-thirds of those visits also will involve an "eating interaction," he said, meaning nearby restaurants also should benefit.

Galaxy is leasing the 40,700-square-foot theater from American Nevada Co., which developed the Green Valley community. The developer broke ground on Green Valley, widely considered the first master-planned community in Southern Nevada, in 1978.

Phil Ralston, president of American Nevada, said his company still has "a very active interest" in Green Valley's commercial properties, including Green Valley Town Center. The center's current anchor tenant is Barley's Casino and Brewing Co.

Ralston said a Chinese restaurant is expected to fill other vacant space in the shopping center, which is on Sunset Road near Green Valley Parkway.

"We hope we're contributing to the revitalization of that center," Ralston said.

The center's original eight-screen theater complex opened in 1995 as part of the United Artists theater circuit. The complex was owned by Tennessee-based Regal Entertainment Group when it closed in January 2005. It was "underperforming," a Regal spokesman said at the time.

Shortly after the complex opened, according to a 2005 Review-Journal story, "a theater building boom made new, stadium-seating megaplexes the industry standard - and casino-based theaters the Las Vegas movie venues of choice."

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.