Aug 02, 2018
Xscape Theatres to open second Louisville-area multiplex
By Marty Finley Reporter, Louisville Business First
Updated
The growing Xscape Theatres cinema chain will open a second Louisville-area location.
Chance Ragains, CEO of New Albany-based Patoka Capital LLC, which owns the Xscape brand, said it will build a theater in Jeffersonville as part of Louisville-based Denton Floyd Real Estate Group's Bridgepointe Commons mixed-use development.
Denton Floyd has partnered with Iron Street Partners LLC as co-developers of the 70-acre development that is planned at Interstate 265 and Ind. 62 and could cost $100 million or more. A movie theater has been part of the project since it was announced two years ago, but the operator had not been identified.
Ragains said the 50,000-square-foot theater will have 12 screens and about 1,500 seats. Two of the screens will be the company's larger Xtreme screens.
The $14 million theater also will be equipped with recliners and new laser projection technology.
“It will be a first for the market here and help make the viewing experience that much better,” Ragains said of the technology.
Ragains expects the Xscape location to employ about 50 people, and Patoka is eyeing a late 2019 opening.
This news comes after the company opened an Xscape location on Louisville’s East End in Blankenbaker Station Business Park, off I-64. (You can have a look in the attached slideshow.)
Xscape has locations in five other markets: Riverview, Fla.; Brandywine, Md.; Howell, N.J.; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Conroe, Texas, in the Houston area. A second Houston location is set to open later this month or next month, and Ragains said his team is scoping out sites for a third Texas theater.
Ragains said Chad Sprigler, a Southern Indiana home builder and developer, introduced him to Brandon Denton and Tommy Floyd, and they started working out a deal for the theater earlier this year.
Xscape already had been eyeing the Jeffersonville market, which lacks a movie theater.
“I'm a Southern Indiana resident, and I have a good understanding of the growth taking place in the market," Ragains told me. "… We felt there was a big hole in the market."
Tommy Floyd, a co-owner of Denton Floyd Real Estate Group, said the firm is happy to bring a locally owned theater chain to Jeffersonville, adding that the company wanted to attract Xscape from the beginning.
"It's a quality theater chain; they do things right," Floyd said. "We feel they're the best theater in the market."
Floyd also said the Xscape signing should have a ripple effect in terms of attracting Class A retailers who want to be near the theater so they can tap into its audience and traffic.
Bridgepointe Commons is slated to house a large entertainment complex, restaurants and retail, hotels, a brewpub and possibly other commercial uses, such as a bank and pharmacy, as well as medical services.
The project will be supplemented by Bridgepointe Gardens, an assisted-living facility with more than 100 units. Denton Floyd signed Colorado-based brewpub chain Growler USA earlier this year as one of Bridgepointe Commons' first tenants.
Louisville's PRG Commercial Property Advisors is handling the leasing for Bridgepointe Commons.
Bridgepointe Commons is one of several large-scale mixed-use developments under construction in Jeffersonville. The 70-acre Jeffersonville Commons — anchored by a Kroger Marketplace — is under development by Louisville-based Nicklies Development on 10th Street, and the 65-acre Jefferson Ridge across the street is being developed by Louisville-based Kaden Cos.
During a Jeffersonville Plan Commission earlier this week, the first tenants for Jefferson Ridge were revealed as McAlister’s Deli and First Savings Bank, according to this News and Tribune report.