Marana residents rejoice! For those of you tired of driving to the Foothills Mall to catch a flick good news is on the horizon.
Linda Vista Cinemas Tower Theatres, a 12-16 screen digital image projection theater (first in Southern Arizona) is slated to open this fall. It will have stadium seating and 40-foot wide screens, and will be located on Arizona Pavilions Drive off of the Cortaro Road exit, just west of Kohl’s.
I snapped these photos the other day, two from the front of the theater and one from the backside. I actually got a screw stuck in my tire from the construction site while I was driving around. Grrrr.
Click to Enlarge
Features will include THX surround sound, a gourmet coffee bar and a video arcade. It was originally planned to have 18 screens but budgetary constraints forced developers to scale the project back a bit. I spoke with Andy Seleznov from
Larson Baker LLC (the developing company) and he informed me the theater should be completed and open for business by
October Winter 2007.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
UPDATED 8/13/2007 - According to
this Arizona Daily Star article, the theater may actually be named Tower Theatres. From the article: “A movie theater should be open in Arizona Pavilions before the end of the year, Slachta said. Tower Theatres will have two digital theaters and 12 screens, said Kent Edwards, managing partner of Tower Theatres.”
UPDATED 9/2/2007 - Thanks to a comment from Andy we’ve discovered a website for
Tower Theatres! From the looks of things the name change from Linda Vista Cinemas is something that came about just recently, if you notice when you visit the above website it actually directs it to “www.lindavistacinema.com”. Also the opening is pushed back yet again to Winter 2007.
Technorati Tags: Marana, Foothills Mall, Linda Vista Cinemas, Tower Theatres, Arizona Pavilions, Cortaro Road, Tower Theatres
Adding to the explosive growth in Marana, AZ is the steady progress of a new 1.3 million square foot retail shopping center dubbed Marana Spectrum. It will be located at the southeast corner of Camino de Manana and Linda Vista Boulevard (east of I-10 between Cortaro and Avra Valley) and will cover nearly 170 acres. Estimated to have roughly 100 stores, Marana Spectrum will carry 3 “anchor stores” of at least 100,000 sqft, making the total square footage approximately equal to that of the Tucson Mall. That’s HUGE! Take a look at the proposed layout below:
The ball started rolling about one and a half years ago and plans have been released by the company in charge of the construction of the center (Kimco Developers Inc.). A brief excerpt from their site on what they do:
“Kimco Developers pursues the development of quality open-air retail shopping centers with national tenants, both on our own and through joint ventures with quality developers.
These projects will be supermarket anchored power centers, mixed-use or lifestyle centers.”
What is even more exciting about this center is the fact that it basically ensures a Twin Peaks interchange at I-10. With such a large retail center being built the Town of Marana will finally have to build the interchange that most Continental Ranch residents have been clamoring for over the past five years. It will also alleviate some of the congestion that has been building up during the past few years at the Cortaro Road interchange and also ease the traffic that will be generated from the pending subdivision of Saguaro Springs (read about it here).
The project is slated to begin in 2008 and be completed by 2010 (I wonder if that will coincide with the opening of the Twin Peaks interchange & the completion of the 3 year I-10 expansion project! ;P).
As of yet no anchor stores have been announced but possible candidates will probably be stores along the lines of Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Circuit City, etc.
This is definitely going to be a huge step in Marana’s development plan and I can’t wait for it to be finished!
UPDATED 8/13/2007 - From today’s Arizona Daily Star article: “Plan update: The developer, Barclay Group, is still in negotiations with the town of Marana on a development agreement. The retail center’s opening is contingent upon the completion of the planned I-10/ Twin Peaks Road interchange. Construction on the interchange is expected to begin in early 2008. The Town Council approved a site plan for the center on Tuesday.”
Technorati Tags: Marana, AZ, Marana Spectrum, Twin Peaks interchange, Town of Marana, Continental Ranch, Saguaro Springs, tucson real estate
