Cathedral City considers Imax options

Public Record, The, Jul 09, 2002 by Kleinschmidt, Janice

Criticism runs rampant over the Cathedral City Council's actions regarding the Imax Theater on the corner of its civic plaza. Mayor George Stettler took office in 2001 just as Desert Imax dumped the failing two-year-old business in the city's lap.

Today, Stettler says the city is still "working very hard to try to turn it around."

The city doesn't have a lot of choice at this point. It owns the land on which the theater sits and assisted Desert Imax LLC by guaranteeing $3.3 million in construction loans, as well as 20year agreements with Imax for operating and maintaining equipment.

With costs exceeding $1 million this past year, the city approved a budget for one more year. On the bright side, Stettler says five months ago admissions were up 20 percent and are inching toward 40 percent.

"We have turned the corner in attendance this year over last year," says Stettler. He suggests that rotating shows more frequently and offering feature-length movies could help tip the scale closer to the profit side. A renegotiated contract between the city and Imax - in the approval stage - offers the city "more flexibility."

The city created a 501(c)(3) Downtown Foundation, to which it assigned the Imax contract. Ed Bisaillon still manages the theater, but reports to the foundation.

Stettler says the city is looking at the prospect of issuing $3.3 million in redevelopment bonds, maturing in 20-25 years, to pay off the construction loans. Then the city would lease the complex to the Downtown Foundation.

When the civic center site was in the planning stages, the Imax proposal sounded profitable. The theaters attract a large enough audience to make costly, large-format projections viable. However, most Imax theaters are located in museums or themed attractions. A smaller customer base plagues the local Imax.

"I think it's strictly that the population in the valley doesn't support the original projections," says Stettler of his city's money-draining enterprise.

"The downtown core was projected to be an entertainment center, like The River," says Stettler. "It probably should have been the last structure to go in. It is not a destination unto itself."

The mayor even suggests reconfiguring old movies to project them on the large-format screen. But it's not a simple solution.

"Again," he says, "that's just more money."