Get Ready For The Previews

Get Ready For The Previews:

Upcoming 16-Screen Regal Theatre Brings Concern and Excitement To Community

            A 68,000-square-foot theater with 16 screens, 3D visuals, 3,200 stadium seats, a spacious lobby and party rooms available to celebrate birthdays, family gatherings and more; Regal Cinemas is bringing the works to Barkley Village in Bellingham.

            As a whole, the Barkley area is in the midst of planning for future construction for other retail, residential, restaurants and parking garages.

            Roosevelt resident Brianna Peugh has lived in the area for nine years has high hopes for the incoming theater and projects.

            Peugh thinks the additions would bring in more business, help the development for the community and boost its sales, like surrounding stores have done for Pro Cuts Hair Salon where she works.

            “We get a lot of our business from people going to Trader Joe’s right next door, so I bet a new big cinema would also help the surrounding areas for business as well,” Peugh said.

            Haggen Food and Pharmacy worker Jill Millam thinks it will bring more customers to Haggen (which will be right across the upcoming theater) and that the community will benefit from it.

            “I think a lot of customers will come here (Haggen) or other surroundings stores to get candy before the movies,” Millam said. “I also think it will probably wipe out the other Regal Cinemas nearby since this one will be much newer and bigger.”

            Christen Ceausu is glad they are building a new theater because she said Bellingham’s current theaters are not that great.

            “I know a lot of people who would rather go to Canada or Lynden to watch movies at theaters there because it is expensive to fork out that much money so you want to go to nice ones,” Ceausu said.

            Becky Foster, who recently moved to the Roosevelt Community in Bellingham last summer, enjoys the area and thinks it would be a plus to have a big theater for the community.

            “People would be able to walk and buy groceries, do some shopping and then watch a movie when they’re done all in the same area,” Foster said.

            However, the main concern among local residents was increased traffic in the already heavily travelled area.

            “I would see how it would be great for the economy around here,” resident Anna Kuksenao said. “But since there is already a lot businesses here I would hope they do something to keep the traffic to a minimum.”

            On the Barkley Village website it mentions that there will be new traffic lights, including one at Howe Place, and other necessary projects for the new additions such as the widening of Barkley Boulevard.

            Local resident Betsy Raymond said she goes to the Haggen in Barkley Village and hopes the planning for the theater includes well thought out plans regarding traffic, parking lots and building designs.

            “I hope they remember that with more people that would mean more traffic and they will have to accommodate for that,” Raymond said.

            Kochman said Barkley Company has been working with the city on traffic impacts and believes the improvements they have planned will keep traffic under control.

            Compared to the three other Regal Cinemas in Bellingham, the new theater will be bigger and feature more movie screens; what this project will mean for the other theaters is currently unclear.

            Kochman estimates the project will cost somewhere in the $15 to $25 million range.

            Phase one construction of the theatre project is scheduled to begin this Spring 2011, and completion is tentatively scheduled for summer 2012.

            For more information on Barkley Village and about the ongoing progress of

the theater project, visit www.barkleyvillage.com.#