Big cinema complex for Tauranga

Tauranga is about to get a huge, fivetheatre multiplex cinema with more than 1000 seats.

Mark Taylor, a director of Tauranga Crossing which is building and will own the retail complex west of the city, said Event Cinemas had leased the theatres where construction will start at the end of this year.

“Site works have started and the cinemas will open in the middle of 2018,” he said. “The cinemas and adjoining retail will be a $30 million project.”

Event Cinema Tauranga Crossing will have five general admission cinemas, adding more than 1000 seats. That will include the region’s first Vmax big-screen which would be 24-metres wide and 9m high.

All the cinemas will have spacious seating and the latest Dolby Atmos speaker system which allows the sound to come from all directions.

“There are 15 cinema screens in Tauranga at the moment so this is adding another five to the market. So the new project will . . . answer demand from rapid growth now and in the future,” he said.

Site works on now are preparing a platform for building. Higgins was working at the site, bounded by State Highway 29 and SH23.

The shops and cinema are the second stage of a multi-stage project at Tauranga Crossing. The entire project is valued at more than $100 million. The first stage with 29 shops, including a Warehouse, will open next month. The second stage, with the cinemas, will include a further 20 retail stores in an indoor mall.