Gregory J. Holman

GHOLMAN@NEWS-LEADER.COM

When Alamo Drafthouse Cinema arrives in Springfield next year, it will occupy the former Campbell 16 Cine location, the company announced early Friday.

The new theater is expected to open February 2017, said its franchise owner, John Martin, in an interview with the News-Leader.

Martin said Springfield's Alamo Drafthouse will have 14 screens and seat more than 1,000 people, making it the biggest of the company's two dozen locations.

It will also be the first theater in the chain in which every seat will be an electric recliner, Martin said.

"We're going to have a lot of firsts in Springfield, and we're proud of that," he said.

Founded in 1997, the "cinema-eatery" company is known for offering restaurant and bar service, along with movie tickets.

It has a "zero-tolerance" policy toward talking or texting during movie screenings, and it does not allow "drop-off children," Martin said, meaning kids have to be accompanied by an adult to see a movie.

Alamo Drafthouse announced it intended to open a theater in Springfield May 19, just four days after St. Louis-based Wehrenberg Theatres said it would shutter the Campbell 16 Cine on July 31, after 20 years operating in Springfield.

Wehrenberg cited declines in attendance and an inability to get rent assistance in its decision to close Campbell 16.

Martin, with Alamo Drafthouse, called Springfield a "fantastic market." He said that "when Campbell 16 was going to vacate, it was leaving an opportunity open there, and we wanted to take advantage of that efficiently and appropriately."

Along with Martin, who served as Alamo Drafthouse's president and CEO from 2003-2010, the Springfield location is owned by feature film producer Marc D. Evans. His credits include a 2008 horror film, "The Strangers."

Springboard Ventures, LLC, the company running the Springfield Alamo Drafthouse, will be managed via Rock Ridge Principals, Alamo Drafthouse said in a statement. Like Alamo Drafthouse, Rock Ridge is based in Austin, Texas.

Martin said he and Evans would be leasing the building long-term from its current owners, listed as Cinema 16 LLC in Greene County Assessor records.

"Hopefully, we'll be there for 20 years and beyond," he said.

Martin declined to reveal the terms of the lease or the cost of renovations to the Campbell 16 Cine building, but he said it would be a "multi-million dollar" project that would take "a lot of time, energy and capital."

Martin said that Alamo Drafthouse would contribute "over 150" jobs to the local economy. While he would not comment on whether any Campbell 16 Cine employees would be staying on, he said anyone with relevant experience is encouraged to apply for positions at the new theater.

A statement released early Friday asked would-be employees to send resumes to gabby@rockridgeprincipals.com.

Martin and others with Alamo Drafthouse have been laying the groundwork for the new theater for about nine months, he said. Feedback from the community has been "unanimously positive."

"We wanted to take into consideration the local laws, the permitting, the viability of the market size," he said. "It just takes a while on the ground to make sure that the market and the community wants something like the Alamo. We wouldn't be opening if we didn't believe that."

On April 5, 2011, Springfield voters passed an ordinance "to prohibit the sale, consumption or advertising of alcohol in family-oriented movie theaters in the city of Springfield."

The ordinance prohibits alcohol in "any movie theater that has ticket sales for admission to persons under 21 years of age that exceed 25% during the most recent previous three months of operation."

At the time, Campbell 16 was the only Springfield theater to be affected by General Ordinance 5926. Other theaters either didn't sell alcohol, or, like downtown Springfield's Moxie Cinema, were exempt from the ordinance due to nonprofit status.

Alamo Drafthouse "is going to comply with (the ordinance) 100-percent," Martin said.

Martin said that because Alamo Drafthouse does not allow unaccompanied children, and because of the mix of movies it shows, the age distribution of its guests should keep the sale of kids' tickets to below 25 percent of total ticket sales, as required by Springfield's ordinance.

"We're not doing anything differently than we are in our other Alamo Drafthouse properties," he said.

Jim Blaine, a former trauma doctor who is chair of the Springfield DWI Task Force, was a key activist in favor of General Ordinance 5926.

Blaine said that back in the early 2010s, he and the task force gathered signatures to put the ordinance on the ballot because they thought serving drinks in darkened movie theaters where children would be present was a terrible idea.

"I’m 68," Blaine said. "Even I can remember back to my teenage years. It would not have been difficult, in a dark movie theater, for people to share alcoholic drinks."

With regard to Alamo Drafthouse, Blaine said, "I guess the devil’s in the details. If they’re a restaurant and serving and carding and in bright light, not in darkened theaters where kids could share, then we wouldn't have an issue. We’re not teetotalers or prohibitionists."

A statement from Alamo Drafthouse said that the theater "delivers the best film, food and drink all in one seat" and that "guests order all food and drinks from servers who quietly attend to them throughout the movie."

Mike Stevens, executive director of Moxie Cinema, the small-scale theater in downtown Springfield, welcomed the competition.

"Well, I'm glad that it's not going to be empty," he said, referring to the Campbell 16 Cine building at 4005 South Avenue. "I'm still happy they're coming to town."

In May, when Alamo Drafthouse announced it would locate in Springfield, Stevens said the chain is an example of how large movie theater companies are making investments in upgraded technology and amenities in order to remain competitive in an era of entertainment streamed over the internet, often onto mobile devices.

"They really managed to meld two businesses," Stevens said at that time, "a high-volume restaurant business and a serious movie theater."

Alamo Drafthouse also puts on a film festival and operates a film distribution arm, an art collectible gallery and an entertainment blog.

Since 2012, it has had a theater in Kansas City's Power & Light District, according to news reports archived by the Springfield-Greene County Library District.

It does not yet have a location in metro St. Louis, Martin said, but, "I can't say that we're not looking up there."

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