Almost 9 years to the day after it was transformed from a dingy but beloved local arthouse theater to New Orleans’ first dine-in moviehouse, Regal Cinemas’ posh but customer-strapped Cinebarre Canal Place, which previously operated as The Theatres at Canal Place, will close its doors May 23.

Lisa Manzella, the general manager for the Shops at Canal Place shopping center, where the theater is located, confirmed the impending closure Monday morning (May 20).

“While we are sorry that Regal (Cinemas) will be leaving Canal Place, we recognize this as an opportunity to reimagine the third level and continue to focus on making our center the best destination for both our local customers and NOLA visitors,” she said in a statement.

Regal Cinemas, which took over operation of the nine-screen theater from the local Southern Theatres in 2017, didn’t respond to repeated requests for details about the closure. Similarly, the theater manager refused to comment on reports that the staff had been laid off, referring all questions to corporate.

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Jillian Jacob, a former theater employee who said she quit her job as a food server in early April to pursue other opportunities after more than two years on the job, estimated that around 60 people have been laid off as a result of the closure.

Jacob, who said she maintains a friendship with a number of her former co-workers, said employees were informed during a general staff meeting in early May that the theater would be closing its doors. Few people outside of management, if any, were offered the opportunity to transfer to other local Regal locations, she said, because their training and experience was different from that required at traditional theaters.

The closure will leave Orleans Parish with only two full-time movie theaters: the Broad Theater and the Prytania. All of the region's other movie theaters are multiplexes located in St. Bernard, Jefferson or St. Tammany parishes.

For local movie buffs, it marks the end of an era. It also brings an end to the latest chapter of what has been a rocky recent history for the space, which for years was run by Landmark Theaters as the Canal Place Cinema, an arthouse theater known for brushing aside of most blockbusters in favor of foreign and independent movies.

While that niche marketing strategy limited the theater's audience, those who regularly patronized it were passionate about -- and appreciative of -- its off-the-beaten-path fare.

Then, in September 2009, local businessman George Solomon's Southern Theaters took over the space. Soon after, the aging multiplex was closed and stripped to the girders in preparation for a $4 million facelift that saw the installation of all-digital sound and projection, as well as the addition of a dine-in component, in the form of a kitchen run then by local Chef Aldofo Garcia.

It reopened as The Theatres at Canal Place on May 26, 2010.

In addition to introducing local audiences to the dine-in theater concept, the transformation also brought less of an emphasis on arthouse films. Within two years, it also led to an expansion from five screens to nine, as the cinema took over space formerly occupied by Southern Rep theater and RHINO Contemporary Craft Co.

Despite the renovations, a regular audience proved elusive. In 2017, the Tennessee-based Regal Cinemas took over management of the theater. Although Regal maintained the dine-in concept, it rebranding the site as the Cinebarre Canal Place 9.

According to Jacob, the change in management led to a noticeable decline in quality of service almost from the beginning, an opinion voiced by patrons of the theater.

“I am definitely sad to see the location closed because even though I had the opportunity to move to another job that I am very happy with, I very much enjoyed going back to see my friends and co-workers try their best to make the experience great," she said. “... I can only hope that something just as wonderful as it once was replaces it one day.”

It has yet to be announced who will take over the space, which serves as one of the anchors of the swanky, three-story Shops at Canal Place shopping mall, or if it will remain a movie theater.

Regal Cinemas continues to operate two other New Orleans-area theaters: the Kenner Grand and the Covington Stadium 14.

Follow Mike Scott on Twitter: @moviegoermike