Joe Muffler of the Mill Creek developers of the Founders Row major mixed use project at the corner of W. Broad and N. West St. told the monthly virtual meeting of the F.C. Economic Development Authority (EDA) Tuesday that he is working with the IJM Enterprises, nationally-renowned motion picture brokers, to score a movie theatre tenant for the project, and there is “significant interest.”
Last month, the firm that Mill Creek had lined up to provide that service in the project went bankrupt.
While small parts of the Founders Row project will be open by this September, Muffler said he hoped the movie feature will be in place between this December and May 2022.
“We’re not waiting for the market to come to us,” he said. “We’re very optimistic but we don’t want to get over our skis.”
A retail broker, JBG, has over 1,000 targets for retailers to locate at the site, and about 10 tours of the site a week are occurring now.
The EDA voted unanimously, 6-0, to recommend in favor of the modifications to the agreement with the City about a commitment to a movie theater, with an escrow account of up to $3.6 billion to be set up to help guarantee the right outcome.
“But for the pandemic, we’d be pretty close to smelling the popcorn by now,” Councilman Phil Duncan said.
