For Once The Crazy Rumors Were True. Eight Movie Theater Screens to be Built at 3rd and Main

According to the Downtown News, the coolest theater chain in the world - Alamo Drafthouse Cinema -  is about to sign a lease on a to be built eight screen theater complex in Historic Downtown Los Angeles. Located between 3rd and Main Street and  the part of the Medallion project that is at 4th and Main, it will replace the housing that had been planned to be built upon the existing parking lot.

photo by Gary Leonard for the Downtown News
Here are some of the details:

Farkhondehpour said he expects a lease to be signed this month. A 30,000-square-foot single-story building would go up on a parking lot that sits atop a hill that rises from the commercial plaza of the 96-unit apartment complex. The site currently houses a 300-space parking lot.

Plans call for the theater to be built into the hill with a rooftop garden. Some parking on the lot would remain.

If all goes according to plan, Farkhondehpour expects the theater to open in about 18 months.

The Alamo Drafthouse is an Austin, Texas small theater chain that holds special events like themed movie nights, which can include things like a night of slasher movies or independent films.  

Filmmakers are also often invited to talk about their movies before a screening and the theater lets people order food and beer  from their seats.

The rest of the story is at the Downtown News website. Historic Downtown will soon have first run films for the first time in decades. They will also bring in a nighttime audience that can also attend  the more varied programming t the existing historic theaters will eventually have now that they are no longer suitable as first run movie houses.  It will also still leave a niche for the Downtown Independent while also attracting  large film going audiences to the overall neighborhood.

Even more importantly in the long run, this could help fill all the vacant spaces along Los Angeles Street with night time retail and dining that will start to connect Little Tokyo with Historic Downtown Los Angeles and begin to help the declining Toy District (with its just opened Lexington Comedy & Music Club on 3rd between Main and Los Angeles) develop a new identity.