When a local ownership group announced it would open an art cinema and restaurant on the east side, it wanted to fill a void for showing small-budget indie and art films.

That, however, is only part of the mission of the tentatively named Windsor Theater.

Owners Edward Battista, Tom Battista, Sam Sutphin and Ben Sutphin are setting up a hyperlocal hiring plan. The art cinema-restaurant will partner with businesses opening in the area and the John H. Boner Community Center to develop a training program that will boost the neighborhood.

The owners want the three-screen cinema-restaurant, which will be in the former Christian Unity Missionary Baptist Church in Windsor Park, to improve the east side's quality of life. Early plans have it set to open in the spring of 2018, said Edward Battista, who owns the popular Bluebeard restaurant with his father, Tom Battista.

The new venture is part cultural hub, part passion project, part neighborhood builder.

"So many movie theaters that you go to now, you have no sense of place, no sense of identity," Edward Battista said.

"They're big and sterilized. They feel like, you know, Wal-Mart. We want to change that. We want to really interact well with the neighborhood identity — really focus on that park, really focus on that we think that this is a walkable neighborhood."

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The hiring plan is for east-side residents to fill positions at the new businesses, though others from outside the area are welcome as well. Battista wants to avoid the negative effects of development that can displace and price out those who have put down roots in an area.

Andy Beck, chairman of the Cottage Home neighborhood's Conservation Committee and a friend of Edward Battista, suggested the new business owners partner with the Boner Center for a workforce training program.

"The people that have lived there for 20 years — how is this development or this new business really going to help them?" Beck said.

Right now, the hyperlocal hiring plan is in nascent stages. So far, Battista lists a few businesses that are involved: Milktooth chef and owner Jonathan Brooks plans to open Beholder near East 10th and Tecumseh streets. Along with Broad Ripple Brewpub owners John and Nancy Hill, their son Alec Hill and his partner Hilary Powers will open the Mayfair Taproom near East 10th Street and North Hamilton Avenue. And King Dough pizza — which Adam and Alicia Sweet and Tom and Edward Battista are in on — is headed to a spot on North Highland Avenue and East Michigan Street.

From the Boner Center's point of view, the future of the east side depends on overcoming challenges from its past.

Historically, the area included a large middle-class base that fueled thriving industries and businesses that are now closed, including the RCA and Ford plants, said the Boner Center's Jon Berg, who brings stakeholders together to support the near east side. A relatively high home vacancy rate and concentrated amount of poverty are challenges the Boner Center wants to provide solutions for, he said.

"The idea with a lot of these old ... sites that we've identified as a promise zone is to try and remediate and find new owners and uses for these legacy industrial sites with the key component being job creation," Berg said.

Berg also wants to make the most of the east side's assets that include green spaces and long-standing collaboration between neighborhoods.

The hyperlocal hiring program is "really to help demonstrate the connection to what the near east side assets are, and that's to have folks that can fill these jobs that are local residents and really realizing that the near east side is a great place to live, work and play," Berg said.

The project is larger than just the Windsor Theater. Edward and Tom Battista said they want to rent out nearby houses they own to artists whose creative work will contribute to the neighborhood. They would like to present movies in Spades Park. And Amelia's Coffee Shop — akin to Amelia's bakery that is part of the Bluebeard operation — will take up residence in a home near the new spot.

"We try and invest in our communities," Edward Battista said. "We don't buy properties, max out rents and then flip them. We hold them. We're in it for the long term, and we really like ... helping to bring communities together."

Call IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at (317) 444-7339. Follow her on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram.