Chapel Hill’s chance to have a 10-screen multiplex is still up in the air.
The movie theater was expected to be finished by January 2006, but Eastern Federal, the lot owner, wants a one-year extension.
The spot where the South Elliot Road multiplex is supposed to be built has sat vacant and fenced-off since the original theater was torn down during the fall of 2003.
Plaza Theater occupied the spot in Village Plaza until Eastern Federal decided to construct a new 10-screen facility. Now only a gray trailer and sign sit on the grassy lot that nearby business owners hope will be developed again someday.
“It has affected our business big time,” said Iris Andros, owner and manager of Zorba's Restaurant. “It really should be built because it would bring a lot of attraction to this area. Things have been vacant for a long time now, and it is very unattractive to look at.”
Jim Groot, owner of Jim’s Famous BBQ, said that while the vacant spot has not altered his restaurant’s business drastically, it has affected the street overall.
“I think that (the empty lot) is a factor because you get the dinner and movie crowd when there’s no movie,” Groot said. “I think it has affected the entire street in that way. That whole area being fenced off makes the natural flow of the businesses more cumbersome.”
Both owners were in agreement that traffic- and parking-related problems have arisen as a result of the fence blocking off the lot. “The fenced-off area makes it unsafe, especially at night,” Groot said. “They haven’t been using that area for sometime now.”
In a letter to the town, Carter Meiselman, the CEO of Eastern Federal, blamed construction delay on a typographical error in its first special-use permit from the town that was not corrected until nine months later.
