New Jamestown Mall 14 Family Theatre

Nothing yet…. But there’s room for a 450-plex if anyone’s wanting to draw up some plans.

It looks like Wehrenberg dropped the venue on January 7, 2010 likely able to escape its lease through a performance clause as the Jamestown Mall had reached greyfield status, a term akin to a “dead mall” with less than 50 percent occupancy. The cinema carried on as an independent beginning on January 19, 2010 and under Nova Cinemas while the interior Mall itself was sold for a mere $1.5 million, a fraction of its value just ten years prior. Absolutely no need to change the entry title but - according to interior signage - it closed as the New Jamestown Mall 14 Family Theatre to match the final operator of the mall, New Jamestown Holding, LLC, a New York-based entity which purchased the interior of the Mall for a fire sale price of just $660,000 in December of 2012. The latter hoped that a flea market and essentially giving folks month-to-month leasing terms for little to no cost would attract customers as the “New” Jamestown Mall, a name that it didn’t have the wherewithal to market or the chutzpah to even seriously say aloud.

The plan failed quickly as only a few businesses operated in the Mall’s interior along with a cobbled-together flea market and two anchors. As was the case in dying St. Louis area malls, the cinemas carried on in almost impossible environments. Nova Cinemas closed the New Jamestown Mall Family Theatre on June 23, 2013 with its final, two post 10p showings of “The Purge” and “This is the End.” Prophetic - and, yet wondering who would want to be in the “New” Jamestown Mall circa 2013 at the film’s midnight end times?

In sum, the Jamestown Mall narrowly missed its 40th anniversary of movie magic. Normally, with a 1998 open and 2013 closure that might have been the sign of the 15-year leasing opt out, which was indeed coming due. But it was the film exhibition industry’s transformation that more likely ended the Jamestown location. With film distributors switching to digital DCP files, the theater was unable to even consider making a digital transformation making programming for 14 auditoriums hard to find in the Summer of 2013. Aging mall cinemas nationwide dwindled in the 2013/4 period and Jamestown was one such example.

The old analog, New Jamestown Mall 14 Family Theatre didn’t miss much through its Summer 2013 exit. The entire interior Mall was first closed on Thanksgiving Eve of 2013 due to lack of heat with its two remaining anchors allowed to continue operations with going out of business sales. Heading into what would be the Mall’s final holiday shopping season, it was not cool for Jamestown’s handful of operators, other than the actual temperature of their operations. The interior mall managed to reopen as the final leaseholders and the remaining lessee retails were allowed to continue operations to the anchor-less Mall’s official closing date of June 30, 2014.

What happened next was a fiasco as - like many malls - there were five mall property holders - all of whom fled the area. Four of those owners - the main anchor tenants -were long gone while the out of state interior mall operator couldn’t be found ending any hope for a comeback. It also ended mall security and uprooted the local police department which had a Jamestown Mall storefront. A combination of well-intentioned urban explorers documented the interior of the mall to show what was transpiring inside the moribund space. And the transgressions within would have been seen as shocking to previous generations as scores of folks, likely with chemically-clouded mental functionality, entered the mall facility. They crashed glass, tagged everywhere with spray paint, set fires, broke functioning water pipes and worse - likely not caring what their actions would bring about.

Fast, or better yet, slow forward to 2023 when the demolition finally began… only to stop temporarily due to a labor issue. When the last of four (!) fires was set in the complex injuring two firefighters in 2023, the local fire team made the smartest move on the last fire set: let it burn. After all, the water lines, interior fire suppression and hydrants had all run dry. The Mall Cinema was the very first demolished part of the venue followed by the rest of the facility. A mercy razing if ever there were such a thing.

Demolition of Jamestown Mall began today by toppling the tower of the Cine’s facade.

Abandoned Jamestown 14 Cinema inside the Worlds Most Dangerous Abandoned Mall Episode 4. https://youtu.be/aOxk3uHRf3c

November 20th, 1998 grand opening ad in photo section.

Judging by the website, the theater’s status needs to be changed to closed. The site only lists three theaters, and Jamestown is not one of them.

J 14 didn'y expand at the old twin location. The old twin location was on the other side of the mall where the foodcourt is now next door to the old Ground Round Restaurant

Another problem with the site: Their “Contact Us” link lets you fill out a message, but the Submit button doesn’t seem to work. This must still be a work in progress.

The newspaper ad now sports this site:

www.jamestown14cine.com

Go to Wehrenberg’s site now, it’s not on there anymore

I went to this theater when it opened. It was pretty stable with a steady flow of customers. I never thought this mall was “doing well” but apparently it was doing well enough to open a large set of screens in the theater.

I can’t say that this mall…and probably this theater…is doing well these days, especially since Wehrenberg gave it up.

In the paper today, it says “under new ownership” and it is not listed under the Wehrenberg logo. Upon logging into the Wehrenberg website, it also has no mention of Jamestown. Who owns this theater now? It looks like it is still showing new releases as of now.

The Architect for this project was Rataj Krueger Architects Inc. please see web site at www.rkai.net for other theater projects.