|
according to Bloomer.
"In the mid to late 1980s was the advent of the home videotapes," Bloomer said. "Most drive-ins were not first-run
theaters. The movies would open at the indoor houses and then, after they were done with them, the movies would go to the
drive-ins. But with videotapes, a lot of people just decided to wait until it came out on video and watch it at home. It
affected the entire movie industry, but I think it hit drive-ins even harder. That's probably a secondary cause. The prime
cause was that the land itself was becoming more valuable as development property than it was as a drive-in theater. Most
drive-ins were built out in the middle of nowhere when they were first built, and the city just grew up around them," he
added.
Bloomer Amusement Co. at one time owned 17 movie theaters but sold them all except the Skyview. "My aunt and my dad were
the two owners," Bloomer said. "They were both getting up in years and we weren't expanding. And if you're not expanding in
this business, you're falling behind. If we weren't going to expand, we thought, 'Well, let's just sell off what we can and
get out of the business entirely.'"
With no interest in the Skyview, BAC continued to operate it and it experienced some tough times, according to Bloomer.
"The problem at the drive-in in the mid-80s," he said, "is that it became a teen-age hang-out. On a Friday or Saturday
night we'd have groups of 200 to 300 kids just standing around visiting, milling around, getting drunk. We had to hire
off-duty police to patrol the place to try to keep the crowd under control. We finally put enough pressure on the kids that
they felt uncomfortable. They left and they quit coming, which was our whole intent - to get rid of them. The problem was
they had been there long enough that they drove away the family business. Parents weren't going to bring their kids out to
the drive-in where you've got all of these drunken teen-agers hanging out. It's just been gradually coming back over the
past 15 to 20 years."
|
Bloomer said that since then, Skyview has been catering to families by selecting movies that parents would want to bring
their kids to see, maintaining a playground and offering free admission for two kids under the age of 12 when accompanied by
an adult. The strategy has worked, according to Bloomer, and today the theater is profitable.
According to Wayne Barber, principal of the BARBERMurphy Group, there are a variety of options regarding the property.
One, the entire 17.5 acres could be redeveloped. In this case, Barber said, probably the best use would be a mixed-use
project with multi-family in the rear and one or more commercial developments along the North Belt West frontage. He said
that he was speaking with developers about both an apartment development and a senior citizens' housing development.
Another option, according to Barber, is that the drive-in theater could remain but that the frontage could be sold to one
or more commercial users. Barber even has plans that show that the theater operation expanded to three screens while selling
the frontage.
"We're very flexible as to what we can do," Barber said. "If you had a restaurant or video store or whatever you needed -
one or two acres - we can do that. Or if you needed a space for a big box store, we could do that, too. It's a half block
from Frank Scott Parkway. It's one block from West Main Street. It's right in between those two high traffic carriers. North
Belt West has an average daily traffic count of just over 20,000 cars a day. There's a Schnucks supermarket and a Walgreens
right next door. It's a great location."
|
