It’s lights out for the last movie theatre downtown. With the closure of the cinema in the World Exchange Plaza, Centretown residents are left with no options within walking distance if they want to catch a movie.
The theatre screened its final movies in December. However, Bentall Kennedy, the company that manages the leases for the Plaza, was still negotiating to and keep the cinema open at the time.
The negotiations didn’t succeed and the cinema will be closed for good.
“The negotiations are confidential so I can’t discuss the specifics. However, it seems that there is too much uncertainty in the local movie business for a theatre operator to make a substantive commitment,” says Bentall Kennedy’s vice-president of leasing, Daniel Gray.
The drama around movie theatres downtown started last March when Empire Theatres closed its venue at the Rideau Centre. Later in June, Empire Theatres, who also used to run the cinema at the World Exchange Plaza, announced it would be getting out of the movie theatre business altogether.
After months of uncertainty, Landmark Cinemas struck a deal with Bentall Kennedy in November to administer the cinema in the Plaza until the end of the lease on Dec. 31. Landmark had already struck deals to manage Empire’s theatres in Kanata and Orleans.
At the time, Landmark showed interest in extending the lease of the space and keep the theatre going but couldn’t reach an agreement with Bentall Kennedy, according to Gray. And now with other companies also failing to reach an agreement, the cinema in the Plaza is officially gone.
Centretown moviegoers lost more than just blockbuster screenings with the theatre. The Ottawa Film Society held monthly a series of international films in the cinema. They relocated their screenings to the Mayfair Theatre, a smaller venue The Film Society did not respond to requests for comment.
Thomas McVeigh, president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, expressed grief at the loss of the theatre.
“It’s not just a loss for the community, but for the whole city,” he says. “We’ve been losing cinemas downtown for years.”
Yet for him, the closure of another cinema downtown was not unexpected.
“(The World Exchange Plaza) venue was hidden, it’s not a surprise it closed. We need to create opportunities for cinemas downtown in better venues,” he says.
The future of the space previously occupied by the cinema at the Plaza is uncertain.
“The space will eventually undergo a complete renovation to transform it to a flat floor environment,” Gray says. “It could be conference or meeting space, or educational use and could also appeal to a tech office user looking to be in the core with a LRT stop at the door.”
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes has said the Plaza administrators should act in the best interest of the community and keep that space as a theatre. However, there is no obligation for the Plaza to have any entertainment venue, according to Gray.
“There was never an entertainment or cinema requirement associated with this space”, he says. “Possible uses (for the space) include offices, retail stores, hotels, residential use, etc.”
The closest cinema to downtown screening first run movies will be at Lansdowne Park after it's finished. However, even that is uncertain.The company who was supposed to manage the movie theatre was Empire Theatres, the company that got out of the cinema business in June.
For McVeigh, Ottawa has a vibrant downtown community and there’s demand for a cinema in the area.
“We just need to keep our eyes open for a good location, visible, in the street, that can be turned into a cinema.” McVeigh says. “And then we have to lobby for it. A movie in a visible and marketable area would be profitable. It would be part of a night out in downtown, the classic dinner and a movie night.”