The Arizona Republic - March 2007
There's a big addition coming to Mesa's movie screen selections.Mesa will be getting the state's fifth IMAX theater this summer when Dickinson Theaters opens its cinema at Signal Butte and Baseline roads. Developers expect the theater to open in late summer or early fall, said Tim Dollander, a principal with Diversified Partners, the Scottsdale firm overseeing the development of the twin Superstition Gateway East and West centers in southeast Mesa.
Tenants there began opening late last year, with Best Buy and Wal-Mart among the first. Other tenants, including Village Inn and Chili's, are expected to open next month, Dollander said.But it's the presence of another IMAX, which features large screens, that changes the complexion of this center, he said.Superstition Gateway, like many power centers, is designed to draw customers from a five- to 10-mile radius, which could have more than 200,000 residents within the next five years. IMAX changes that equation, Dollander said."Obviously, IMAX brings a different customer coming to our project. It's only going to enhance the number of trips that are coming to the entire project," he said. "That will certainly broaden it because there are only a few in the Valley and this should draw from the entire southeast Valley. The closest one is at Arizona Mills."The Valley also has IMAX theaters in north Phoenix and at the Arizona Science Center. IMAX came to the Valley in 1991 when a screen opened at the Scottsdale Galleria near downtown Scottsdale. The theater closed with the mall. The first IMAX in the state, and still in operation, opened near the Grand Canyon in the 1980s.
