Camera 12 rebirth focuses on luxury

Developer’s plans for movies in growing downtown include fewer but bigger seats

SAN JOSE >> The new owner of the Camera 12 theaters site in downtown San Jose plans a wideranging revamp that could feature fewer seats and more luxury movie chairs, the property’s developer said Friday.

The final piece of the ownership puzzle for the movie complex at 201 S. 2nd St. in downtown San Jose fell into place Dec. 21, when a group led by veteran realty developer Imwalle Properties paid $726,000 for the land beneath the theaters. In June, Imwalle paid Ohio-based Forest City Realty Trust $4.7 million for the Camera 12 structure.

“There is a real downtown in San Jose now,” said Don Imwalle, president of Imwalle Properties. “You have a nighttime and daytime population that are both growing. The areas nearby can support movie theaters downtown.”

Imwalle pointed to multiple residential projects that are currently being built, are in the pipeline, or will soon break ground. Plus, Imwalle believes San Jose State University now has more students living on or near the campus, and is less of a commuter college. New offices are being planned and Google wants to build a transit village of tech offices near Diridon train station for 15,000 to 20,000 of its workers.

“Our preference is to bring a movie theater back to downtown San Jose,” Imwalle said. “The number of screens is likely to stay, but the number of seats will be reduced dramatically.”

The shuttered movie complex now has 2,100 seats. Imwalle intends to reduce that to 900.

“Fewer and bigger seats is the business model now for movies,” Imwalle said. “The cinemas will feature those bigger luxury seats you see

now. There is a trend to move away from large-volume ticket sales and focus instead on a really unique theater experience that gets you out of the house. The concessions will be more than just soda and popcorn.”

Word of the potential new efforts at the movie complex heartened Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association.

“Imwalle has been a savvy investor over the years in downtown San Jose,” Knies said. “They have a long-term perspective on downtown.”

Now, Imwalle has control of the site through full ownership of the land and the building.

“We have the lock and the key for the site” following the property deals, Imwalle said. “Owning both the land and the building gives us more flexibility with how we pursue things.”

Financing for interior and exterior upgrades and construction would also be more feasible due to the now-conventional ownership of the property.

“This really gives us the opportunity to put a significant reinvestment back into the building and really provide a first-class operator with the sort of infrastructure and funds they need to make this venture happen,” Imwalle said.

The building opened in 1996 as an eight-screen movie house known as UA Pavilion and was a companion to the adjacent Pavilion retail mall. But the Pavilion failed due to a feeble tenant mix and fierce competition from nearby regional malls.

The shopping center closed and became a data center in the late 1990s amid the dot-com boom. In 2000, the UA theater closed and the building sat unused for four years.

In 2004, the owners of the Camera theaters reopened the movies, with the site reconfigured for 12 screens. More problems erupted, though, primarily because downtown San Jose had yet to achieve a critical mass of residents to patronize the cinemas at night and on weekends.

The 12-screen theater complex, which features a unique three-story atrium, went dark again in September 2016.

“This would be a third act for movies in that location,” Knies said. “We do need first-run movie screens in downtown San Jose.”