Plaza Sale Gives Drafthouse Chance to Remodel
This rendering shows plans for renovations of Alamo South Lamar and The Highball, both in Lamar Plaza. Photo courtesy Michael Hsu, Office of Architecture.Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Alamo in the Lamar Plaza shopping center plans to shut down in January and will be out of commission for most of 2013. The Highball – the bowling and karaoke bar next door that is also owned and operated by the Alamo – will shut down in November, also for renovations.
Drafthouse founder and CEO Tim League says the company is happy it has a chance to renovate while the whole shopping center undergoes big changes.
“This project is beyond our control,” League said. “The shopping center was sold, we’re a tenant. It’s getting redeveloped and we were able to broker a deal to stay and also expand. So, is this something that you’ll see across all Alamos? Not really, not necessarily. But Alamo South Lamar has been a really popular theater and we only have six screens, so this affords us the ability to add additional screens and we’ll have a fancy new façade so I think it’s going to be great…and more parking, which maybe on Friday and Saturday we’re a little thin on parking.”
Both the Alamo Drafthouse and Highball are slated to re-open in late 2013.
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