Unique cinema coming to Downtown; to include bars, rooftop screen

In 1914, a brick building with a distinctive smokestack was constructed by the Illinois Central railway line to provide steam and electrical energy to South Main’s Central Station.

More than a century later, that same building has been incorporated into a plan to re-energize the Central Station neighborhood with an ambitious “boutique cinema” that would be the most unusual movie theater in the region and in Malco’s chain of theaters.

With auditoriums on two floors, a rooftop screen, multiple bar and lounges and a historic power plant for a lobby, the long-planned Malco Powerhouse Cinema — as the theater is tentatively named — is intended to be a centerpiece in the residential, retail and cultural revival of the Central Station area, according to developers.

The eight-screen theater moved several steps closer to reality with state Historic Preservation Office approval of some revised plans.

Now, Malco Theaters Inc. is taking bids from for construction of the project, which would return first-run movies to Downtown Memphis for the first time since the Muvico multiplex inside the defunct Peabody Place shoppingand-entertainment center closed in 2008.

The Powerhouse Cinema also would return the 101-year-old, Memphis-based Malco to Downtown for the first time since 1976, when the company sold its movie-palace flagship, the Malco, to a nonprofit foundation, which restored and redeveloped it as a live performance venue, the Orpheum.

“We’ve looked for a long time, wanting to find the right location to come back downtown,” said David Tashie, Malco senior vice president, operations and construction.

Construction could begin as early as May, with the theater opening in the late spring of 2017.

The proposed theater is part of a $53 million plan to redevelop the Central Station area with several hundred new apartment units and a Kemmons Wilson Companies hotel inside the 102-year-old train station. The roughly 17 acres in question is owned by the Memphis Area Transit Authority and is being leased for development by the Henry Turley Co. and Community Capital. Malco is a subtenant, leasing from the developers.

The 4,700-square-foot glassand-brick powerhouse will be incorporated within the Malco cinema as an elaborate box office and lobby inside the theater’s main entrance. The rest of the compact theater will run to the west of the powerhouse, covering some 20,000 square feet of space that is now a grass field.

The theater will include five firstfloor movie auditoriums and two second-story auditoriums, for a total of about 700 seats. The screen size will be similar to the auditoriums in the Studio on the Square, but Tashie said the seats will be more comfortable and roomy.

The upstairs “VIP” auditoriums will contain only 50 to 75 seats each. Some auditoriums will have designated seats and food and drink delivery. An eighth screen will be in an open-air “rooftop” space that will be used for movies, sports events and other types of screenings.

With lobby bars on both floors and a “gourmet” food menu, Tashie said the Malco Powerhouse is intended as an “adult” experience.

The theater is being designed by TK Architects International, a Kansas City, Missouri, firm that specializes in cinemas.

Jennifer Meyer, TK project manager for the site, said the Malco theater is part of a trend in “boutique cinemas” aimed at discriminating moviegoers. She said the powerhouse would give the place “a really nice character that is helping us create a unique and unusual theater.”

The theater will have faux exterior windows and other features intended to complement the “warehouse” aesthetic of the district, said architect Tony Bologna of Bologna Consultants, a specialist in historic preservation.

The project has not been without complications. Central Station itself is within the South Main Historic District, while the property just west of the station, including the old powerhouse, is part of the South Bluffs Warehouse Historic District. Also, MATA had received a Federal Transit Administration grant to assist in its Central Station redevelopment. As a result, the FTA and the state Historic Preservation Office have the right to approve plans for the development.

The Malco project already has affected some tenants using the space.

The popular not-for-profit Memphis Farmers Market occupies part of what will be the theater’s parking lot. Developers and the market organizers have worked out a deal that will allow the market to continue to operate, and have agreed to preserve the long roofed pavilion that provides shade and cover for food vendors.

The 19th annual

will take place Nov. 1-7, festival executive director Ryan Watt announced.

The seven-day Tuesday-through-Monday event is one day shorter than last year’s Tuesdayto-Tuesday schedule for a very good reason: This year, what would have been the eighth day of the festival falls on presidential Election Day, an event likely to keep most people glued to their televisions at home.

As with last year’s successful festival, most weekday screenings will be at the Orpheum’s Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education at 203 S. Main St., while weekend screenings will mainly be in the Overton Square area, at the Malco Studio on the Square, the Circuit Playhouse and the “black box theater” of the Hattiloo Theatre (a venue used only for panel discussions last year).

With presenting sponsor increasing its support, Indie Memphis will expand beyond Downtown and Midtown “to have a presence out East,” Watt said.

Some weeknight screenings will take place at the Malco Ridgeway Cinema Grill, while a screen at the Malco Collierville Towne Cinema will be devoted to Indie Memphis on Nov. 5. Movies shown at these theaters also will be screened during the festival at the traditional venues. Also expanding is the

program, which will grow to what the festival describes as “a total of $21,000 in cash and in-kind services” to support “veteran” and “emerging” filmmakers.

Sponsors include

and

With a mix of local films, true independent cinema, cult and classic revivals (Whit Stillman last year hosted the return of his “Metropolitan”) and prestige “arthouse” fare (“Carol,” “Brooklyn” and “Anomalisa” screened during the 2015 festival, a couple of months before their regular theatrical bookings and Oscar nominations), Indie Memphis is arguably the region’s top film festival.

This year’s event likely will host close to 140 films, including shorts and features of all types. New for 2016 is a “music” category, in recognition of Memphis’ music heritage and the growing number of music-themed features and shorts produced these days. Also, the festival is bringing back its “music video” category.

Another new addition is a “youth film” category for video made by Memphians 18 and under.

To submit a film for consideration for Indie Memphis, visit the FilmFreeway link found atindiememphis.com. Information on how to apply for an IndieGrant also is on the site.

JUDGE KEITH STOPS BY FOR SCREENING

Senior federal

93, is coming to Memphis to speak and answer questions after a free screening of a new documentary about his often controversial career.

The movie,

directed by Jesse Nesser, screens at 6 p.m. April 13 at the National Civil Rights Museum. The film — which counts best-selling author Mitch Albom (“Tuesdays with Morrie”) among its producers — focuses on several of the landmark cases handled by Keith in the wake of the Detroit riots of 1967, when he was a Michigan-based U.S. District Court judge.

Keith’s rulings rooted out “hidden discriminatory practices that had been woven into our housing, school, work and police institutions,” according to museum publicists. In a famous 1971 case, Keith — who ended his career as a U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals judge — ruled that President Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, had to turn over the transcripts of wiretaps authorized without a search warrant. The Supreme Court eventually settled the case in favor of Keith’s ruling.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The City of Bartlett’s free spring movie series, continues after sunset on April 29 at W.J. Freeman Park, 2629 Barlett Blvd., with

Visit facebook.com/ BartlettParkMovies.

The CTI 3D Giant Theater in the Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central, presents

4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through April 24. “Toy Story,” April 23-24; “Toy Story 3” this weekend. Tickets are $9. Visit memphismuseums.org.