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MERRITT HERALD Movie theatre moving ahead FREE
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2013 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
STRING SOUNDSCAPES Alberta-born musician Cris Derksen wowed a crowd of about 50 at the NVIT lecture theatre on Thursday with her brand of cello-based electronica music. The classically-trained cellist didn’t let a broken foot slow her down on her loop and effect pedals, which she uses to create her cross-genre signature sound. Derksen’s performance was the second in the Nicola Valley Community Arts Council’s 2013-14 concert series.
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A four-bay movie theatre in Merritt is coming closer to reality with the recent purchase of some prime real estate downtown. After months of negotiations, the Merritt Community Cinema Society has purchased the lot at the corner of Coutlee Avenue and Garcia Street, across Coutlee from Pharmasave. “It’s been a long, long negotiation — much longer than we had anticipated,” Merritt Community Cinema Society member Kurt Christopherson said. The piece of land was subject to first rights of refusal from other retailers in the Railyard Mall as well as conditions around parking availability and the eventual movie theatre’s size that needed to be worked out. This round of negotiations — the second the society took on to secure this land — began last May. A first round of negotiations started well before then, but fell through because of all the stipulations. The society looked at other locations for the movie theatre but kept coming back to its plan to have a downtown location, Christopherson said. Part of the society’s mandate is to increase traffic downtown. The purchase was finalized earlier this month. “Things started falling into place, but again, we had to go through all of those restrictions,” Christopherson said. Christopherson said the group has until Dec. 19 to raise the money to pay for the property, and its members are not worried about that goal. He said community members, local businesses and corporate sponsors alike have largely been receptive to the idea. “We’ve got some excellent property in Merritt now. It’s exactly the one we
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fought for for years,” Christopherson said. “We think [the theatre] belongs in the city centre. We want people to come downtown on a regular basis, 365 days a year. It has really major implications for Merritt to keep shopping here, business here, and people downtown.” The society formed about four years ago and is comprised of community members who want to eventually see a performing arts centre here. However, a performing arts centre in itself is unlikely to be financially self-sustaining, so after some investigation, the group members came across a non-profit, first-run movie theatre model used to fund various community projects in Salmon Arm. Shortly after the local society formed, it released a survey in local media about the idea of a movie theatre and the feedback from the 600 returned surveys was overwhelmingly positive, Christopherson said. While private movie theatre companies are likely to skip over small cities in favour of large centres, he said the non-profit movie theatre model will give moviegoers the option to stay here and will keep their money here as well. Merritt hasn’t had a movie theatre since the old one-bay theatre burned down in 1994. “A lot of our business is flowing out of Merritt right now. A lot of people, because you can’t go to a movie in town on a regular basis, are going up to Kamloops. While you’re there, you do your shopping and go out for supper. And you can’t just do it on the spur of the moment, you’ve got to plan a day of it,” Christopherson said. “It’s not going to stop everyone from going out of town for movies, but it will give a chance for a good portion of that money to stay back here.”
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