APTOS >> Aptos Cinemas is about to end its 45-year run at the Rancho del Mar shopping center.

The last day of business will be Jan. 26.

The new shopping center owner, Terramar Retail Centers of Carlsbad, is not renewing the lease, which expires Jan. 31, according to Ted Mundorff, chief executive officer of Landmark Theatres, which bought Aptos Cinemas in December.

“They rejected our offer,” Mundorff said Tuesday. “They told us to clear out.”

Landmark’s publicity director, Laine Kaplowitz, invited patrons to stop in to see “The Revenant” or “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and say goodbye and then visit Landmark’s other locations, Nickelodeon Theatre and Del Mar Theatre in Santa Cruz.

Attempts to reach Terramar Retail Centers were unsuccessful.

The shutdown will affect 10 of Landmark Theatre’s 50 local employees.

It comes two years after the former Nickelodeon owners invested $250,000 into remodeling the two-screen Aptos Cinemas with a digital screen, plush seats with extra legroom, 3-D technology and personal captioning for hard-of-hearing movie fans.

“I’m very unhappy we’re holding the reins when the theater closes,” said Mundorff, whose Los Angeles-based company runs about 50 theaters and specializes in independent and foreign films.

He said he offered to put money into the theater, “take it another couple levels up,” adding, “I wasn’t asking for an allowance on that.”

Sometimes a building owner will provide an allowance for tenant improvements; there can be surprises if construction estimates are not on target.

According to Cinema Treasures, Aptos Cinemas opened April 9, 1970.

Before Terramar bought Rancho del Mar in December 2014, Safeway had acquired it for $41.2 million, boosted rents and mapped out a total makeover that had residents fuming that local merchants would be forced out with no place to go during renovations.

The makeover was shelved when Safeway division Property Development Centers sold its shopping centers to prepare for a merger with Albertsons. The $830 million deal included 11 retail centers, nine centers under construction and five projects in entitlement phases, according to the San Diego Business Journal.

Terramar owns many upscale retail centers. Its vision for the Aptos location is unclear.

“I don’t know their plans are,” said Mundorff, disappointed the new owner did not see value in the theater bringing people to the shopping center.

Karen Hibble of the Aptos Chamber of Commerce thought the new owner planned a remodel and would reach out to the community first.

“I’m just so sad,” she said. “It’s terrible to close down a movie theater.”

Added Aptos resident Mary Anne Carson, “It will be missed.”

County Supervisor Zach Friend, who represents Aptos, called the theater “a neighborhood jewel and important institution for the greater Aptos area.”

He added, ”I’m concerned that losing them as tenants will have ripple effects for other local small businesses in the center that rely on the theater to help bring them business.”

About a quarter of the Rancho del Mar center is vacant including the former Windjammer cocktail bar and Rancho del Mar Cafe.

Rancho del Mar has been a major retail hub for Aptos since 1961. New competition is coming from Aptos Village, a long-planned development with 70,000 square feet of commercial space and 69 homes. Barry Swenson Builder has announced a groundbreaking for February.