Cinema owners to expand, add bowling alley

Published 3:00 am Wednesday, August 24, 2016

cc

Continental Cinemas in Troy will soon have a bowling alley, arcade, and bar and grill.

The movie theater made the expansion and renovation announcement on Facebook Tuesday.

Sign up for our daily email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

The bowling alley will feature 12 lanes and have glow bowling and computer scoring.

The theater is also adding a bar and grill area that will be open to all ages and a modern arcade.

“We want this to be an entertainment destination,” said Chase Taylor, vice president at Continental Cinemas. “It should end up being a whole entertainment complex.”

The Facebook announcement took off, garnering over 1,000 shares in less than two hours.

“We’re kind of shocked at how quick it’s grown,” Taylor said. “It makes everybody feel good about the stuff we’re doing.”

Taylor said that the theater is still in the design phase of the project and expects it to take 12 to 18 months to complete the expansion.

During that time, Taylor said that the plan is to keep six screens open at all times.

Screens 1 and 2, currently on the left side of the theater, will be removed to house the new lobby for the theater. But Taylor said that two new screens will be built next to what is currently dubbed “Screen 6” before those two are taken out, leaving six open at all times.

The two new screens will also be larger than most of the theater’s other screens and will have stadium seating.

The biggest challenge, Taylor said, will be keeping six screens going during the renovation of “Screen 6”, which is being renovated as a “Premium Large Format House.”

The renovation will include the installation of motorized recliners, a floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall screen, and the Dolby ATMOS sound system, which has 47 audio channels.

“It will be absolutely incredible,” Taylor said.

The bar and grill will be at the front of the building and will be open completely to the lobby. A schematic released with the announcement shows room for about 90 seats at the restaurant. About 20 seats are shown at the bar, 40 seats around indoor tables and 30 seats at outdoor tables, which will be under an awning.

Taylor said that the restaurant will serve food such as pizza and burgers, which customers can even take into the movies with them.

The theater will have to go to the City Council for any alcohol license, but Taylor said that the current plan is to allow customers to bring alcoholic beverages into the theaters as well.

The arcade will take the place of the current lobby, and will have mostly new, electronic games. It also may be have a system that will take cards instead of having to get quarters.

“As a company, we’re ecstatic to be able to bring this to Troy,” Taylor said. “We’re looking forward to making this happen as soon as we can.”