Atlanta-based MegaStar Cinemas LLC has signed a deal with lead developer Michael B. Vlass for a $16 million, 3,800-seat, 75,000-sf multiplex theatre at the 14.5-acre site, seven miles north of Downtown Orlando. A ground-breaking date for the 16-screen theatre hasn't been set.

The theatre will be built at a hard construction cost of about $4,211 per seat or $213.33 per sf. The project comes just as six other area existing multi-screen theatres are being revived after a two-year industry slowdown.

This is three-year-old MegaStar's first Florida venture. The theatre will also be the first in the area to offer VIP suites for small business groups or private parties; a children's birthday party suite; and a full-time concierge for personalized customer service, concepts that MegaStar developed in 1999, chairman Jeffrey G. Kiser says in a prepared statement.

"This is the sort of upscale project the city has been hoping to attract to Cranes Roost for many years," Altamonte Springs city manager Phil Penland says in the same statement.

The Cranes Roost entertainment/retail attraction, a five-year-old, private-public partnership with Emerson International Inc., abuts the Altamonte Town Center project at Cranes Roost Lake in the city's central business district.

MegaStar auditoriums will have 125 seats to 500 seats; wall-to-wall screens; digital sound; and stadium seating on 18-inch risers and 48-inch wide rows.

For MegaStar, the Town Center project is part of two-year growth plan started in 2000. In that timeframe, the Georgia company opened a 4,000-seat theatre at Southdale Mall in Edina, MN; a $10 million, 3,500-seat, 70,000-sf theatre in Maple Grove, MN; and a 3,200-seat theatre at The Mall at Stonecrest in Lithonia, GA. MegaStar has existing theatres in Chagrin Falls and Cleveland, OH; and Springfield, MA.

The company was founded in 1999 by a Cleveland investor group that owns the American League's Cleveland Indians baseball team. The ownership group is headed by Larry and Paul Dolan. James O. McKenna, a longtime cinema industry professional, is MegaStar's president.

Atlanta developer Vlass, managing principal of Altamonte Springs Investments LLC, is jointly developing the Town Center with James Jacoby of Atlanta-based Jacoby Development Inc.; Orlando-based Martin, Mantle and Bignon; and the city of Altamonte Springs.

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GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Atlanta's MegaStar Signs Deal for $16M Theatre

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