Beloved movie theater at Park Road Shopping Center closing soon

The Park Terrace Stadium movie theater will close its doors after more than half a century at the Park Road Shopping Center, the Observer has learned.

The historic Park Terrace, known for showing independent and foreign films, is Charlotte’s second oldest movie theater, after the Manor on Providence Road. Park Terrace opened in 1964 and underwent a $2 million renovation in 1996 that included an expansion from three screens to six.

Several people familiar with the theater confirmed its pending closure. The theater will officially close Dec. 17, according to a person familiar with the move who asked not to be named because the plans have not yet been made public.

It is unclear what will become of the 21,000-square-foot building at Park and Woodlawn roads. A representative from Edens, the Columbia-based firm that owns Park Road Shopping Center, could not be reached for comment Friday.

A Regal spokesman could not be reached for comment.

The Park Road center was Charlotte’s first open-air retail center when it opened in 1956.

Edens bought Park Road Shopping Center in 2011 for $82 million. Since then, the complex has undergone extensive renovations and has gotten several new tenants, including J. Crew Mercantile, Burton’s Grill, Urban Cookhouse, Chopt, Amelie’s and Core Power Yoga.

Rising rents at Park Road have also prompted several longtime tenants to relocate. A watch shop called A Time n’ Place, for instance, moved from Park Road to another spot on Woodlawn in 2015 because of rising rent. Toys & Co. moved all its operations that year to its other location in Cotswold.

Edens also operates the Myers Park Center, Atherton Mill and Kenilworth Commons.

In 2014, a 50-year time capsule commemorating the opening of Park Terrace was opened at the theater to throngs of onlookers. Among other artifacts were pictures of Charlotteans and their predictions about 2014, a letter from then-Mayor Stan Brookshire and newspaper clippings.

Park Terrace was previously run by Consolidated Theatres until Regal Entertainment Group bought the Charlotte-based movie company in 2008. Locally, Regal also owns the Manor, Phillips Place and Stonecrest, among other theaters.

This month, the British company Cineworld Group PLC confirmed its plans to buy Tennessee-based Regal for $3.6 billion. The deal is expected to close in early 2018.

This story first ran at CharlotteObserver.com.

Photos: Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer, Robert Lahser/Charlotte Observer

This story was originally published December 10, 2017 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Beloved movie theater at Park Road Shopping Center closing soon."