Second multiplex
cinema planned
in Hailey
Magic Lantern owner unfurls
proposal for four-plex theater
By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer
Magic Lantern Cinema owner Rick Kessler
plans to approach the Hailey Planning and Zoning Commission with design plans
for a new multiplex cinema on River Street.
The application will be the second film
theater complex to come before the city this winter. A previous application was
submitted for the proposed Big Wood 6 on Main Street.
A four-screen cinema on River Street,
east of Bullion Square in Hailey, is planned byMagic Lantern Cinema owner Rick
Kessler. Architect’s rendering
A name for Kessler’s plan has yet to be
determined, but he said the location is perfect. The four-screen cinema would be
built on a lot on River Street, east of Bullion Square.
"We’re still fine-tuning the size,"
Kessler said. "Each auditorium would have about two-thirds stadium seating and
one third regular seating. Nothing will be bigger than what we have here (at the
Magic Lantern in Ketchum), except for the screens."
There would be about 120 seats in each of
two auditoriums and about 80 seats in each of the second pair.
Kessler said when he first conceived of
moving the first Magic Lantern Cinema out of the old Odd Fellows Hall on the
corner of Washington Avenue and Second Street in Ketchum, his first thought was
that the cinema should go in the Ketchum Industrial Park. He thought parking
could be better accommodated there. He said the City of Ketchum insisted on
keeping the cinema in the city core.
"The city was right," he said. "It helps
to stimulate the activity of the core."
Kessler also said his parking concerns
have been alleviated because people can park anywhere downtown and still walk to
the cinema.
"This project is smaller than the other
one designed for Hailey," Kessler said. "The purpose is not to draw people from
Ketchum. This is Hailey’s cinema."
Kessler expects to go before the Planning
and Zoning Commission and hear some criticism of the plan. But, he said the
feedback would help him modify the plan designed by a theater architect in
concert with building architect Ned Hamlin.
If the plan goes forward, Kessler hopes to
open the cinema by late fall or Christmas, 2004.
Kessler had hoped to announce a project
last spring, but those plans fell through, he said. An alternate design for
Bullion Square also did not pan out because the ceiling height was too low.