Hey look, Part 9
Written by Dan
Here's the piece that ran in yesterday's edition of the News-Leader. The full story is here, complete with a grainy shot of me standing in front of the building. Do you think this article makes us sound a little amateurish? I'm sure that wasn't Sony's intention, but it makes our situation sound a lot worse than it actually is. I don't know... perhaps that's a good thing.
Costs delay opening of Moxie
By Sony Hocklander
Springfield News-Leader, April 13, 2005
The downtown art and independent movie theater may open in late May.
The Moxie Cinema is still in the works, says Dan Chilton who, with wife Nicole, hopes to establish the new art and independent movie theater downtown. But they've had a few setbacks.
Namely — after filing for a permit to bring the building up to city code — a bigger budget than anticipated.
The theater will show art-house, foreign and documentary films, and be a venue for local filmmakers' work, Chilton says. The Springfield couple, who conceived of the business a year ago while living in St. Louis, wanted to open in March, then April. Now it could be late May or beyond.
They've obtained a small business loan, but bids to improve electrical capabilities, plus meet heating and air requirements among other things, were more than initially estimated.
"None of us had foreseen them or budgeted for them," Chilton says. "So we started scrambling."
Which is one reason they put naming rights to their concession bar up for auction on e-Bay. The concession will serve traditional movie fare, along with beer, wine, coffee drinks and baked goods. By Wednesday, the bid was over $1,000 with four days to go.
"It's quirky enough, it might work," Chilton says.
They've also considered inviting investors.
Andrew Baird owns the Moxie's Walnut Street building. People are excited about the theater, says Baird. Downtown projects are often more complicated than they initially seem, but it shouldn't take long to open once work has begun.
"I have every confidence that Dan and Nicole will have the theater open by the summer," he says. "And I think people will rise up and support the enterprise when it gets together."