FAYETTEVILLE -- Three Fayetteville business partners this week said they'll bring an independent movie theater to Dickson Street by fall 2017, something other developers have tried unsuccessfully for years.
Brian Hill, Ross Cully and Greg Billingsley plan to demolish The Dickson Theater and build a three-story structure in its place. The first floor would house a cafe, bar and two small screens, while a larger screen and auditorium would take up the second and third levels. An open deck on the roof could host another small screen on warm nights and give a downtown view.
Web watch
For more information about the proposed Dickson Street movie theater and the eventual premier and showtimes, go to augustandlouie.com.
Hill and Cully said Tuesday the time is ripe for a downtown theater, pointing to film festivals in Fayetteville and Bentonville and Fayetteville's long-standing support of the Walton Arts Center, TheatreSquared and other art venues. The theater could show independent films, documentaries, older pictures and movie marathons and host concerts and other events, Hill said.
"We think there's still a desire and there's good in watching stories together as a community," Cully said, adding movie houses providing "experiences that are beyond sitting in a chair and watching" are taking off nationwide, "whether it's Brooklyn or Fort Smith."
The project wouldn't be the first of its kind on Dickson, or even the first in that location. Two business partners in 2001 reworked the space for a similar combination of bar, lounge and small movie theater, giving the building its name. The idea didn't stick. Now the building is mainly rented out for short events and a Sunday evening church, Hill said.
Down the street, the old Uark Theater closed about four decades ago after a failed attempt to move from one large screen to two smaller ones. Part of it is being used as a leasing office for student housing in the Sterling District.
Still, the thought of a small movie theater hasn't lost all support. Bill Waite, who owns Dickson Street Liquor next to the Dickson Theater and is secretary for the Dickson Street Merchants Association, said he couldn't comment on the specific plans because he didn't know all the details, but a small movie place generally struck him as a good idea.
"I think it'd be a wonderful addition to Dickson Street," he said Wednesday. "It could be a great thing if it's done right."
Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, called the plan "absolutely marvelous." Past attempts didn't have today's Walton Arts Center's expansion, more trails and downtown housing and more public events in the area, he said.
"All those things will bring people to that location," Clark said. "It'll be great for the vibrancy of the entertainment district."
Elsewhere in the area, the Walton family-backed Northwest Arkansas Downtown Revitalization Fund plans to open a 16,000-square-foot, six-screen theater in Bentonville by next spring.
"We're excited about them," Cully said. "Our view is kind of the more the merrier."
The Fayetteville project's square-footage, cost and final designs aren't yet determined, Cully and Hill said. Marlon Blackwell Architects is putting the design together.
The three Fayetteville partners have worked for two years planning the project, Hill said. He's a freelance film director who's worked on commercial and documentary projects. Cully and Billingsley are entrepreneurs and small-business owners, Cully said. Cully co-owns The Harvest Group in Rogers, which partners with companies selling goods through Walmart and Sam's Club, according to its website.
Hill said the theater will be named August and Louie, after the French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere who were born in the 1860s. The pair are considered the world's first filmmakers and pioneered the projection of films for multiple people to watch together, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. The building itself will be called The Lumiere, which, besides being the brothers' surname, is French for light and the name of the talking candelabra in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
"I think Fayetteville wants something like this," Hill said of the project. "It's fun to bring another style of art to the city."
NW News on 05/05/2016