New theater completion expected in 2025

Sep. 18—Construction of a new $33.6 million B&B Theatres will complete development of the 32nd Street Place by Woodsonia Real Estate in the area of 32nd Street and Hammons Boulevard.

Executives with Woodsonia and with the B&B company provided details of the project during a City Council meeting Monday night.

Drew Snyder, president of the Nebraska-based Woodsonia development group and manager of Woodsonia-Joplin LLC, said that "we're just excited that the 32nd Street Place project as a whole has come together nicely."

Hammons Boulevard was relocated. Now, Menards, a home improvement store, has started construction on a store that will offer more than 200,000 square feet of home- and construction-related products. A 250-unit apartment complex is well on its way to completion. The former Holiday Inn hotel is being demolished.

"Now we're here to talk about B&B Theatres and moving forward on a new eight-screen movie theater project," Snyder said. "Really, once the theater is done, our work is done on this project. I'm excited to say it's turned out great."

Snyder said Menard's and the apartment complex are expected to open in the third quarter of 2024.

The theater will offer 30,000 square feet with 300 parking spaces on property on an 8-acre site at the intersection of 32nd Street and Hammons Boulevard.

Buzz Ball, the former general manager of the Neosho B&B theater, is now district manager. He said the Joplin theater is to be like one in Topeka, Kansas, called the Wheatfield 9 except Joplin will have eight theater screens instead of nine.

He said the company has been remodeling most of its theaters to install recliner chairs. "People love those," he said. "Neosho has gone bonkers since the remodel" for the more comfortable chairs versus traditional theater seats. "It's constantly in the top 40 every week," he said of the Neosho location.

During the COVID-19 pandemic as theater attendance dropped, there was a time when it was uncertain whether B&B would go forward with the Joplin project, Snyder said, but there has since been recovery in the movie industry.

"We're excited to say we're back with the theater project," he said.

The operation will offer family entertainment, food, an arcade and outdoor games with seating.

"They have really put a lot of thought into how they line up the movie rooms for the experiences," Snyder said. It will likely open in 2025 or "if they get lucky, maybe 2024."

Joplin city government will provide $1.84 million toward the cost of building the parking lot for the new theater. The city will recover that cost over time with payments from a special taxing district, a community improvement district, within the boundaries of the development.

Other funding for the theater project includes the developer investment of $23,885,276; tax increment financing revenue of $6 million; and bond funds from a community improvement district at $1.9 million.

The two community improvement districts will add a 1-cent sales tax to collect revenue to help with the costs. The tax increment financing funding comes from the increased property tax values within the development when it is finished. TIF funds pay for public improvements to the property such as the construction of streets and other infrastructure costs.

Council member Kate Spencer said she enjoys going to movies with her family and that she is "extremely excited about this. I think this is a huge thing for us, and I appreciate how well B&B does as far as the experience of the movie" and keeping its properties clean and updated.

Mayor Pro Tem Keenan Cortez asked if the potential for noise created and motion of nearby passing trains was considered in the design of the new theater.

Snyder said that was discussed with a project consultant "and we've been assured that the way we can construct this will deflect a lot of that noise. And there is a train bridge to be built so that passing trains will not have to blare their horns once that is done."

The overall project for the development was brought forward in 2020, and site work on the first part to relocate Hammons Boulevard started in 2021.