Will Lefors Cinemas Be Hot on Its Trail?

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 5, 2006 4:11PM

Crain’s is reporting that Robert Redford’s year-old Sundance Cinemas chain plans to anchor a shopping center at Jackson and Racine, the former site of a Fannie May candy factory.

The Sundance Cinemas theater would not only give Chicagoans an additional venue for art house films but would also bring some economic development to the West Side. A “specialty grocery store” is planned for the site as well as a health club. And we’re willing to bet a cell phone store will be there too because apparently it’s the law now that any new economic development has to have one. They’re the new black.

In other movie theater news, Kerasotes Theaters continues its plans to expand its Chicago area holdings. As we predicted in the wake of the AMC-Loews merger, Kerasotes acquired both the City North and Webster Place theaters from AMC. Last month, the company opened a “state-of-the-art” flagship theater in Naperville and has plans for two more venues: a 16-screen theater to be the anchor of the new Roosevelt shopping center and a 14-screen complex at Grand and Armitage on the far west side of the city.

Finally, Village Theaters plans to open two more theaters by 2007 in the Chicago area after its recent acquisition of the Lincoln Village Theater and the North Riverside 6. The latter is undergoing a remodeling to add stadium seating and stereo sound and will focus on family-oriented pictures.