Garrettsville Cinema will remain open thanks to an unexpected gesture from its new landlord. The locally owned theater had been at risk of closure after the building changed ownership.
Columbus-based Sunshine Stores & Hotels acquired the building, but not the cinema, from RES Real Estate Investments, on Dec. 8, 2023. Sunshine also acquired the rest of Garfield Plaza, which includes a number of other retail businesses, though they are independently owned and only pay parking lot rent.
Since then, Garrettsville Cinema owner Michele Blair has been nervous about potential rent hikes. She knew she could only raise admission and concession prices so far and feared she might have to close what is now the only movie house in northern Portage County.
(Atlas Cinemas is poised to open a 10-screen theater in Aurora later this spring, but it has not yet opened.)
Concerned, Blair reached out to Sunshine Stores & Hotels CEO Muhammad Babar Chaudhry. Dispirited from months of unsuccessful negotiations, on March 14, she posted a notice in area newspapers, on the cinema’s front doors and on social media that she anticipated closing May 1 and could not accept private rentals.
Then, a reprieve. On March 16, Chaudhry offered her a one-year lease with no increase, and then another year with a $200 monthly increase, bringing her monthly rent to $2,800. She hopes, but is not yet sure, that that price includes fees for care and maintenance of the parking lot, as her current $2,600 monthly payment does. Blair said she’d specified the inclusion during negotiations, but until she sees what’s in writing, nothing is certain.
“I’m really at the mercy of when he gets this lease over to us,” she said.
The original proposal had involved a $700 monthly increase, which Blair said was completely out of the question.
“She said she cannot afford to pay that, so I just kept the rent as it is. I said I will never have her leave. That is a small business, so I gave her the chance so she can stay there,” Chaudhry said.
Blair, who is moving out of town, couldn’t be more pleased. For Garrettsville to lose a longtime locally owned business such as Garrettsville Cinema would have been a shame, she said.
Still, seeing is believing. Blair has not yet received the agreed-upon lease, and admits to ongoing concerns about what it actually may say.
Assuming all is in order, the cinema will, as it has always been, remain locally owned. Blair is handing the reins over to Salena King, a current employee and an area resident. King is set to buy the business when the lease arrives and knows she will be the one handling negotiations with Sunshine Stores moving forward, Blair said.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.