Harkins Centerpoint 11 recently closed its doors in the first step of one developer's plans to revamp downtown Tempe.
The theater, located between University Drive and Sixth Street on Mill Avenue, closed Jan. 6.
Officials announced the closure with only a bright orange sign alerting the public, though nearby business owner Vic Linoff said rumors have been floating around the community for the past few weeks.
"This leaves a big hole in the downtown," said Linoff, who owns the antique and book store Those Were the Days, located at Mill Avenue and Fifth Street.
The decision to close Harkins Centerpoint came because of the company's new theaters in the surrounding area, Harkins spokesman Bryan Laurel said.
Harkins Tempe Marketplace 16, located at McClintock Drive and state Route 101, opened in June.
The downtown redevelopment, headed by Scottsdale-based DMB Associates, includes plans to revamp the seven acres where Centerpoint was located. The property is part of a 24-acre section, which the company will develop over the next 10 years. DMB built Centerpoint in 1988.
The redevelopment project includes plans for a retail and restaurant plaza, condominiums, and a 250-room hotel with a 40,000-square-foot health club.
The nearby Harkins Valley Art Theatre on Mill Avenue will not be affected, DMB said in a press release.
Chris Scheuch, a film and media productions sophomore grew up just around the corner from Centerpoint. He said he used to go there to watch movies with his family or to celebrate his birthday.
"I remember back to when the area was just a grassy hill. There was no P.F. Chang's," he said. "I sound like an old man, but it was really different back then, and now it's changing again."
Unlike other theaters in the area, Centerpoint didn't have long lines every night or "a bunch of punk teenagers hanging around," Scheuch said.
Scheuch was at Centerpoint last Friday.
"I saw 'Charlie Wilson's War.' I wouldn't have known it was closing. There was nothing out of the ordinary."
Scheuch said he'll most likely go to Harkins Tempe Marketplace 16 now that Centerpoint is closed.
"I loved that theater. It really was so much better than the rest of them," he said. "(The theater at) Tempe Marketplace is nice, but it's just not the same."
Reach the reporter at: allison.denny@asu.edu.
