Brian Grossman of the Weitzman Group called back today, after I'd left him a message on Wednesday following news of Alamo Drafthouse's possible move into the DFW. I called him because three years back, Alamo was close to moving into the Casa Linda Plaza, which Weitzman's repping on behalf of owner AmREIT. I wondered if maybe the Casa Linda Theater was a possible spot this go-round as well.
Weitzman doesn't actually rep the theater -- that's being done separately through SC Companies -- but from what Grossman's heard, the former threeplex doesn't have "the kind of space necessary to fit a larger, national-type of movie theater company" and make it profitable, despite its being more than 12,000 square feet. Clay Evans of SC Companies confirms, telling Unfair Park today it's been "a year since I've talked to any of those theater chains ... we've exhausted all of them." Though the space has been gutted -- it's "just a box," Evans says -- it's just too small.
Both men say there was a likely contender for the spot in recent months: Movie Trading Company.
But Evans says talks didn't last long and never got far. Which means?
Well, Grossman figures, inevitably SC may have to divide the space in
order to lease it; it's already being offered as three separate parcels. Evans concurs, though, he says, "that's not out preference ... we'd still love to see a theater." --Robert Wilonsky
