Last week's announcement that a five-screen movie theatre will be opening in downtown North Battleford stirred up some excitement and some controversy.
At Monday’s meeting of North Battleford city council, Mayor Ian Hamilton made a point of setting the record straight from the City's point of view.
The controversy was fuelled primarily by social media comments made immediately after the announcement that Magic Lantern Theatres was planning to build, most of which have since been taken down. Tuesday morning, however, the Capitol Theatre's Facebook page offered up a scathing pronouncement that their plans to upgrade had been ignored by the City.
Mayor Ian Hamilton said Monday, "This opportunity had been presented to the existing owners of the Capitol Theatre as much as two years ago. For whatever reasons, they were unable to or unwilling to take advantage of what we were trying to promote all along, a new build down there for a new theatre."
He said he was making his comments so people would be aware the efforts to have a multi-screen theatre downtown have been ongoing for a some of time and that "some consultation has been ongoing with Dynasty Theatre to try to encourage such a development through the existing buildings."
Dialogue with Dynasty Theatres was a priority with council, he said.
"I'm very pleased with the direction of council when the Magic Lantern proposal came to us that this council felt that, ethically, one of the conditions we imposed on our agreement to go forward and into this further was that Magic Lantern was to engage the Dynasty Theatres in a meaningful dialogue and meaningful negotiation with respect to their properties," said the mayor.
"That did happen," he emphasized. "That did occur."
Hamilton said Magic Lantern actually had a unique proposal and concept originally, which was to construct a smaller theatre and purchase the existing Capitol Theatre and refurbish it to its original state – "which was an awesome idea," he added.
"The idea was proposed to the Dynasty Theatre, and an offer was made to purchase their property by Magic Lantern and it was rejected," said Hamilton.
"I think it's important that people understand that these consultations did occur and this council was very, very cognizant of our activities to bring another very, very exciting development to our downtown, which we committed to in our adoption of the official community plan."
Addressing the mayor, Councillor Ryan Bater said "Thank you for clearing the air on those matters, because last week there was some pretty libellous claims being made about you personally, about us as a council, those have been removed since. I think it's important the facts get out there."
Bater said, "We've made a significant investment here. It's a purchase of land but it's a purchase of one dollar and it's in our downtown. As a member of this council I stood by that decision. I'm very proud to still stand by it."
He said there were two reasons to support the deal.
"Number one," he said, "there's a serous quality of life here. Citizens of our city have made it clear to us they want to be able to see modern entertainment in a modern facility in a modern way and now they are going to have that opportunity."
The second reason, he said, is that the community loses hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to leakage to Saskatoon with people going to see modern movies in a modern facility.
"And I'm among them, and I'm not ashamed to say that, but hopefully within a year I won't be among them anymore," said Bater. "I think this was just a really great investment for the City."
Tuesday morning, the Capitol Theatre Facebook page had this to say:
"This is a privately owned, and locally operated taxpaying business of North Battleford for over 60 years. The owners have been working hard on upgrading and renovations for the last six months.
“Their plans for the future, were to remove the wall separating the Capitol, and make it one cinema again. And in the summer of 2017 or 2018 they had plans to built a three plex in North Battleford. They had to upgrade to digital projectors and sound, which cost a lot of money. And being a small business and not a big corporate giant it takes awhile to do this.
“The Capitol Theatre and its owners past and present have been taxpayers to our city for well over 60 years and as such, have contributed to the growth and development of the city of North Battleford. Our city has chosen to go with a big corporate giant, instead of giving the existing businesses a chance, forcing them to revamp, or possibly close.
“What about all the empty buildings in the downtown core that have sat vacant for well over 20 years? Why has filling these empty buildings not been a priority to our city? Why were the owners of the Capitol never approached or asked by the City, ‘What are your plans for the Capitol and another theatre?’ They would have been told ‘yes, we are going to build.’ But they were never asked!"
The post has since disappeared from the Facebook page.
Meanwhile, the City has approved its agreement. It was presented to council by Director of Economic Development Jennifer Niesink, who highlighted a few of the conditions. She said the area is not to exceed 26,000 square feet, the land is to be provided by the City for one dollar, a minimum of four screens is required, the exterior of the theatre is to complement the area, that Magic Lantern will begin within a 12-month time frame, and that Magic Lantern pay taxes on land only for five years, after which it will pay full taxes.
She noted the parcel of land Magic Lantern will be building on has been vacant for more than 25 years.
The mayor also noted, for the public's clarification, that the area cordoned off with barricades at present is not the only area that's being transformed.
"It's essentially the whole west side of that block, so … it's not going to be a building that's going to be five stories high. The footprint is much larger than what people are seeing, so certainly that has to be clarified."
Councillor Greg Lightfoot said council should extend its appreciation to Niesink and her team and the city manager for being diligent and, as Bob Evans of Magic Lantern mentioned, "tenacious."
Council turned their attention next to the remaining plot of land in that block, which is currently being used for parking and which council now sees as being attractive to investors due to the theatre project. It was suggested it be made more visibly attractive to investors, and Niesink said that has already started.
She also said they plan to open up a package for bids on that area and see what response they get.
Some of the details from the City's agreement with Magic Lantern are as follows:
The agreement states that Magic Lantern agrees to build a minimum of four-screen theatre and that the "exterior finishing of the cinema are to be complimentary to the surrounding buildings; for greater clarity, the finishings shall be more expensive than the Beaver Motor Hotel … but less expensive than the liquor store ..."
The agreement also calls for the City to provide storm sewers, inspection manholes, backflow prevention and catch basins as required for sitting and parking areas.
The City is to provide domestic and fire protection water lines as well as sanitary sewer connections.
The City is also to provide and maintain paved parking for a minimum of 200 parking stalls within one block of the cinema for the non-exclusive use of the cinema patrons. The City is also to provide lighting, drainage, snow removal, sweeping and maintenance to the parking areas.
The agreement also addresses the possibility of Magic Lantern patrons complaining there is not enough parking, in which case the City and the theatre would conduct a parking study to determine what additional parking is necessary, and the City would be required to develop and provide additional parking needed within a two-block radius.
There is also an option to repurchase. If Magic Lantern fails to commence construction within 12 months after the closing date of the agreement, the City may buy back the property for one dollar.
