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The developer of the Arena District downtown has a 10screen, 1,800-seat movie theater and six office-retail buildings planned for a $125 million project planned just south of Nationwide Arena.
Nationwide Realty Investors Ltd. and development partner Dispatch Printing Co. expect the 650,000-square-foot, mixeduse project to launch the second phase of the 95-acre development on the north end of the downtown.
"It's a big project for downtown," said Brian Ellis, Nationwide Realty president noting it's the first new theater in the urban core of Columbus in 70 years.
"What makes it special is it's a mixed-use project."
Its budget is just below that for the $150 million arena and office complex that serves as the focus of the downtown development.
Drexel Theatres Management Co., operator of a three-screen cinema in Bexley and one-screen theater in Grandview Heights, will manage the first-run movie theater once it opens in early spring 2001.
The arena itself opens in early October as home ice for the National Hockey League's Columbus Blue jackets.
But the hockey team, concerts and other events will generate business for just 150 to 175 days each year.
"The question became, 'What provides the consistency of traffic for the...