Published: November 13, 2006 12:01 am      

Kyova theater building to begin

Site ready for construction

CANNONSBURG — Construction of a 10-screen, stadium-seating theater is expected to begin this week at Kyova Mall.

Crews have already begun demolition work inside the former Phar-Mor building at the mall to prepare for the new cinema, and mall management has reached an agreement with a contractor from Vanceburg to handle the rest of work.

“We did the demolition to get the Phar-Mor property back to its original, shell building state,” Steven Blair, mall manager, said. “Everything is heading toward us starting on building the theater itself this week.”

When the most recent announcement of a theater project came, the facility was expected to be open by spring of this year. Then, the date was changed to the late fall.

After that announcement, the mall switched theater management groups — going from Great Escape, which was going to build a theater detached from the mall itself, to Phoenix Theaters, which specializes in retrofitting shell buildings.

Now, Blair said, the mall is expecting to open the theater by spring.

“We had to change everything, and go with an entirely new set of numbers,” Blair said. “All the intricacies involved set us back on the timeline, somewhat, but we found the right fit for what we wanted to do.”

Mall management and ownership are hoping the theater can add to Kyova’s slowly changing fortunes. The mall, which changed hands and names in 2004, is beginning to rebuild after more than a decade of woeful management and poor retailer retention by former owner, Zamias, which opened the mall in 1989 and ended up defaulting with its creditors sometime between 2002 and 2004.

The theater project is possibly one of two on the horizon for the Ashland area.

Cinemark, which operates Movies 10 across U.S. 23 from the Ashland Town Center, posted on its Web site that a new, 12-screen theater would be opening at the Ashland mall in the future.

Town Center management has declined comment on the posting.

BEN FIELDS can be reached at bfields@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.