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By P. DOUGLAS FILAROSKI; Times Leader Staff Writer
Thursday, January 23, 1997     Page: 3A

WILKES-BARRE — If a plan for a downtown movie theater in Wilkes-Barre
sounds familiar, think back about 12 years ago.
   
Thomas McLaughlin was mayor, downtown occupancy was dwindling, and local
developer Edmund Wideman III was proposing a movie theater tied to a
residential high-rise across from the YMCA.
    Neither the high-rise nor the theater materialized.
   
So what makes city officials think current plans for a movie
theater/parking garage downtown can succeed this time? The same West
Northampton Street lot is among the sites being considered.
   
“That’s a fair question,” said Mayor Tom McGroarty, who is spearheading the
city’s current’s effort.
   
McGroarty said the success of a new downtown theater in Scranton and the
incentive being offered by the city make the current project different.
   
The city plans to finance a $5 million parking garage and the shell of the
movie theater and offer a city-owned site for $1.
   
Tonight, the City Council will vote whether to pay $30,000 to an
architectural firm for preliminary design work on a $12 million
theater/parking garage.
   
Wideman said the old proposal finally died because the high-rise would have
blocked a local TV station’s satellite reception, the lot was too small and
the cost of building in a historic district was costly.
   
Many of those hurdles wouldn’t exist under the city’s current plan,
however, Wideman said. “I think it’s a superb idea to bring theaters into
downtown Wilkes-Barre.”
   
Wideman’s plan involved an agreement to lease space to owners of Gateway
Cinemas in Edwardsville. Fred Crouse, who owns an interest in Gateway, said he
thinks the area could still sustain a few more movie screens. “A lot depends
on how many they are talking about,” he said.
   
Two more recent plans for movie theaters in the Wyoming Valley — one in
Edwardsville across from Gateway and another on Route 315 in Pittston Township
— have yet to break ground.
   
West Side Mall owner Norman Weiss’ signed lease with Cinemark USA Corp. of
Dallas, Texas to build a 10-screen theater at the mall is on hold.
   
Weiss has said the plan awaits owner’s emergence from Chapter 11
bankruptcy. Cinemark officials did not return phone calls.
   
In April, Victoria Popple of Victoria Inns in Pittston Township said her
company was in negotiations with American Multi-Cinema Inc. of Kansas City to
build a 30-screen theater next to the inn.
   
Popple’s attorney and an attorney for American Multi-Cinema would only say
that talks are continuing. “Typically, these things take a long time,” said
Joel Winston, an attorney for AMC Philadelphia, a subsidiary of American
Multi-Cinema.
   
McGroarty said none of these proposals is relevant to the city’s plan.
   
“We are committed to this. This is one of my two priorities this year,” he
said. “And we think it’s going to succeed.”