$1.9M Louis Joliet Mall Cinemark Upgrade Underway

JOLIET, IL — If you've visited the Louis Joliet Mall lately, you may have noticed fencing around the perimeter of the Cinemark movie theaters. There's also the JB Contracting trailer in the parking lot. What's going on? There's a nearly $2 million mall remodeling project underway. Cinemark is adding luxury loungers to all 14 of its theaters at the Louis Joliet Mall.

The project will cost about $1,925,000, according to city of Joliet building permit records. Joliet Patch obtained data about the building renovations through a Freedom of Information Act request to Joliet City Hall.

Some of the documents indicate that Cinemark had initially notified the city of Joliet of the upcoming project late last summer. Although he timing was delayed, the project is now well underway.

On Tuesday, Joliet Patch interviewed Nick Vedda, marketing and promotions manager with Cinemark USA, to learn more details about the Joliet theater project and the time line for the construction work.

Foremost, Cinemark stressed that the moviegoers in the Joliet area are going to absolutely love these new high-end seats.

"It's a huge upgrade for the theater," Vedda told Joliet Patch during a phone interview from his company offices in Plano, Texas. "We're renovating the auditoriums at all of the theaters."

At the moment, seven of the Louis Joliet Mall movie cinemas are closed while contractors remove all of the old seating and install the new high-dollar items. "The new seats in the theater are electric recliners," Vedda explained. "And we call them 'Luxury Loungers.'"

Cinemark expects the first half of the Louis Joliet Mall project will be finished at the end of this month. At that point, contractors will begin the second phase, ripping out the seating for the other seven theaters. The goal is to have all of the Luxury Loungers installed in Joliet in late April or early May, Vedda told Patch.

A similar remodeling project is also taking place at the Cinemark movie theaters in Melrose Park, he added.

"I think it's absolutely the best way to watch a movie, in these plush, oversized seats," Vedda said.

Moviegoers will be able to reserve their Luxury Loungers ahead of time, in advance of a show. "It really takes all the stress out of going to the movies," he added.

You can visit the website for Cinemark Theatres for more details about the Luxury Loungers here.