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AMC Pine Square 16 in Long Beach eyed for housing
posted by
CSWalczak
on
November 22, 2010 at 3:45 pm
LONG BEACH, CA — With its lease expiring in 2012 and no new retail tenants offering to occupy the space as it is now, the AMC Pine Square 16 may be converted to housing and retail after renovations. Heralded as a magnet for renewed economic life for Pine Avenue when opened in 1992, the theater’s patronage has since declined with the opening of other theaters.
The developer also wants to eliminate the escalator leading to the theater, convert the ground-floor, 543-square-foot box office into potential commercial space and improve the courtyard area.
The remaining retail would continue to operate in the space surrounding the theater.
There is more in the Press-Telegram.
Comments (4)
After purchasing your ticket, your elevator trip to the auditorium is some what creepy along several twists and turns which are out of sight of from cameras or security.
At night it’s NOT very safe for seniors or handicapped patrons, owing to the type of some individuals who want your valuables. The smell of urine also drove us away!
I never felt safe in Downtown L.B. The only times I went is when I had to transfer from the Blue Line in the transit mall to the #12 bus that takes me to the Lakewood Mall and even then only in the daytime.
This all makes a sadder picture when one remembers the stock of wonderful old buildings—including many theatres—downtown Long Beach once had. If Long Beach had had the vision to keep more of them, there would have been a greater sense of place and atmosphere retained. Just saving the buildings would not have been a cure-all, but it would have endeared the downtown to more people, and perhaps more poeple would have actually cared what happened down there.
You are so right Gary. I remember Downtown L.B. as a child back in the late 50s to mid 60s. It was a vibrant downtown with many movie theatres and shops. I attended the roller derbies at the L.B. arena and it was always packed. In the early 70s most of the classic downtown buildings were torn down and replaced with either a parking lot or generic non-descript highrise. At the time I lived on the eastern edge of downtown on Lime street and I saw what was happening everyday. I felt the loss when the Fox West Coast and State theatres were torn down, when the Cyclone Racer was demolished and in earlier years when the Pacific Electric trains stopped coming. Todays Downtown L.B. is a generic downtown with no character like it once had before the 70s.