Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres has shuttered two movie theaters anchoring shopping malls in Santa Clara and Mountain View, leaving landlords scrambling to find new operators.
The 115-year-old Chicago-based theater company turned off the projectors at its 10-screen ShowPlace Icon theater at the Westfield Valley Fair at 2855 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Santa Clara, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.
The firm also shut down the 10-screen ShowPlace Icon theater at The Village at San Antonio Center at 645 San Antonio Road in Mountain View
Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres, which closed theaters at multiple locations across the U.S., didn’t respond to requests for comment. The company’s websites are inactive.
The ShowPlace Icon opened in Westfield Valley Fair in 2019 as part of a $1.1 billion upgrade to the shopping center by its owner, Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.
Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres had been specifically targeted by development executives to fill the slot. Westfield Valley Fair is a retail-restaurant hotspot next to Santana Row in San Jose.
The ShowPlace Icon was added to The Village at San Antonio Center in 2018. Owner Brookfield Properties, a unit of Toronto-based Brookfield, said the firm wants to reopen the movie theater.
“We are in active discussions with prospective operators and our goal is to maintain the space as a theater,” an unidentified Brookfield Properties spokesperson told the Business Journal.
The theater industry took a hit during pandemic shutdowns, and has struggled to recover in the wake of a Writers Guild of America strike in May of last year, followed by the Screen Actors Guild strike.
Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres, founded in 1909 by Greek-born Gus Kerasotes, once had nearly 1,000 screens across the U.S. In 2010, Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment acquired most of the chain’s 95 theaters for $275 million. According to a news release, Kerasotes was operating just six theaters in five states as of 2021.
— Dana Bartholomew
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