Mega Entertainment Complex Still On Construction Hold In Menifee

MENIFEE, CA — A construction reboot on the long-awaited Krikorian Entertainment Complex — that promises to bring a giant cineplex, sports bar, bowling alley, arcade, restaurants and shopping to Menifee — remains on hold, the developer told the city Wednesday night.

Movie-theater mogul George Krikorian addressed the Menifee City Council in-person to provide a construction update on the entertainment complex at Menifee Town Center, along Newport Road, off Interstate 215.

The COVID-19 pandemic shut construction down at the project site in April 2020, and Krikorian said his industry is "still feeling the aftershocks" all these months later.

Despite already investing more than $20 million into the center's development, "now is not the time to move forward and restart the project," he said.

The film industry's lag on releasing new movies and the public's hesitancy to get back into theaters amid the ongoing pandemic are reasons to sit tight, Krikorian said.

"It's just going to take a little bit of time," he continued. "As an industry, box office revenues are still down more than 50 percent of where they were in 2019 on a national level."

Closer to home, it's worse. In analyzing the 2021 box office receipts of local Southwest Riverside County theaters for the months May through September, revenues are down as much as 60 percent compared to the same period in 2019, according to Krikorian.

"Box office revenues do not support the economic viability for completing the project at this time," he said.

Krikorian admitted that unfinished construction at the site is an "eyesore," but he promised that building will kickstart at a later, unnamed date.

Several retail tenants have agreed to move into the unfinished center despite the missing entertainment component, according to Krikorian. Navy Federal Credit Union, a dental office, a Broken Yolk restaurant, and a Vietnamese restaurant were some of the tenants named during Wednesday night's meeting.

Kirkorian estimated several retail pads at the center could be ready in 60 to 90 days.

The massive entertainment complex is slated to see up to 14 theaters, including a gigantic monster screen that may be the biggest in the region. Project construction began in December 2019 and was scheduled to be completed by late 2020. Shortly after the pandemic hit, Krikorian told the city that banks and lenders were reluctant to provide financial support to projects like his.

“The one thing we do know," Krikorian said last year, "is that when we do open the doors ... after the pandemic is deemed cleared, there will be a tremendous pent-up demand for entertainment as Menifee’s market already had a very strong demand."

RELATED ARTICLE:

New Hotel Celebrated In Southwest Riverside County