Malibu’s sole movie theater could possibly be closed up to a year, as well as four other businesses damaged or destroyed by a fire last week.
By Jonathan Friedman/Assistant Editor
Demolition is expected to begin this week or early next week of three of the businesses destroyed in last week’s fire at Cross Creek Plaza.
Cross Creek Plaza owner Steve Soboroff said Bay Cities Beauty Supply, Casa Escobar and Fast Frame will be torn down and rebuilt after being heavily damaged in the April 17 fire that damaged nearly a third of the northwestern portion of the plaza. Soboroff said the process, which is covered under insurance by all the stores, would take about a year.
The movie theater and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream store, also damaged in the fire, will need to have their roofs replaced. Soboroff said the interior of the two facilities would have to be gutted and replaced. He said he expects it to be six months to a year before they are back in business. But John Hunter, chief operating officer of Wallace Theaters, which runs The New Malibu Theater, said he hopes the process will not take that long.
“What I can formally say…is we are assessing the damage,” Hunter said. “I don’t know about the exact timing of when we will reopen the theater.”
Hunter said insurance agents would be coming to the theater this week to assess the damage. One of the theater’s two movie screens was severely damaged, while the other was not. Hunter said he would have a better idea in about two weeks of what the company would be doing with the facility.
The fire damage could lead to a radical change to the theater. Hunter said depending on how much damage there was and how much reconstruction will be required, there could be a major redesign, possibly the building of stadium seating. That would most likely require an increase in the theater’s size, which Hunter said was something that might interest the company. Increasing the height of the building beyond 18 feet would require a variance of the municipal code. Hunter said that could be something Wallace Theaters would like to do.
The cause of last week’s fire has still not been determined. Capt. Lynn Mohr from Fire Station 88 said an investigation is ongoing. Soboroff said he had heard the fire either started from Casa Escobar or Bay Cities Beauty Supply, but further investigation was necessary to determine that. The blaze began at 11:53 a.m. in the center portion of the plaza’s northern strip of shops. Witnesses said beauty store employees ran into Casa Escobar asking for a fire extinguisher and alerted brunch customers to exit quickly.
There was no damage done to nearby Malibu Optics and Banana Republic for Women. An eastern firewall prevented that from happening. Three cars parked in the front of the beauty store burst into flames and the bumpers of another three melted.