Monday, August 8, 2022

Say your final goodbyes to Market Square Theater, say hello to proposed 6-story housing project


Top:  Photo by Retiring Guy
Middle and bottomWisconsin Staet Journal, 8/7/2022
The five-screen theater, built in 1989 and known for its affordable prices, initially went dark at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 but reopened in September 2021. It abruptly closed again in February. The property is assessed at $435,000.   
It would be costly to retrofit the 20,374-square-foot building, so Apex looked to the Odana Area Plan for guidance on a redevelopment project, said Bruce Bosben, chairman of Apex Real Estate Holdings. Apex also owns the Market Square shopping center at 6692 Odana. 
Currently, the Odana area lacks a sense of place, with acres of empty parking lots, vacant storefronts, and limited housing without meaningful access to open space, the area plan says. 
The Odana Area Plan “takes into account the changing retail landscape and the city’s housing and transportation goals,” said City Council President Keith Furman, 19th District, who represents the area. “It calls for more mixed-use development and higher density to take advantage of its proximity to the Beltline and future bus rapid transit.”

The Normandy Square Senior Apartments, located immediately to the north of the proposed project, opened in 2020.

Photo by Retiring Guy


2/23/2022 update, "After reopening 6 months ago, Market Square Theater is closed permanently", starts here.

Photos by Retiring Guy

On Friday morning, the frames on the outside of the building that normally hold movie posters were empty. Signs on the front doors of the theater read “Permanently closed” and “Thank you for your support over the last 33 years.” The marquee along Odana Road near the shopping center’s main entrance displayed “closed permanently” in black letters. 
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the business had been closed for 18 months beginning in March 2020 before reopening in September 2021 but was not among the 54 movie theater operators in Wisconsin that received $10 million from the COVID-19 Movie Theater Grant Program, part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Isthmus, 8/3/2021
“I'm hearing from ownership that we can't rush into opening theaters, so we haven't really been talking too much yet about Madison,” Gerber says. 
Gerber says the Delta variant of COVID-19 might make people more reluctant to head back to theaters, so reopening will be “a lot of waiting and seeing what’s happening in the world at large." 
“Consumers have to feel comfortable coming back to the movies, and not everybody does, so we're still missing part of our audience of people that used to frequent the theaters.” 
Landmark Theatres and Silver Cinemas is focused on the economic success of the entire chain; more than half of its locations have yet to re-open.


8/4/2021 update starts here 

17 months ago.

Photo by Retiring Guy

Close-up


Most recent twitter post is from January 2020.  Pre-Covid.




7/7/2020 update starts here.

Photo by Retiring Guy



Original 3/16/2020 post starts here

Closed.

St. Luke's Lutheran Church.  Sunday services cancelled.

Photos by Retiring Guy

Middleton Public Library.   Dear Library Visitors.



Middleton City Hall.  City Hall Administrative Offices Closed.


Middleton Senior Center.  All programs, activities and card games are cancelled.


Open

Hubbard Avenue Diner.  "It's time to eat".


Not many takers, based on an unusually empty parking lot


Post office


Barriques (l) and Taigu (r).  At a glance, there looked to be 3-4 people in Barriques.  Usually it's a challenge to find an open seat. 


Take-out only at Taigu.  But then that's the bulk of its business.


Sofra Family Bistro


St. Bernarnd's Catholic Church


Willy Street West.  Per order Public Health Madison Dane County -- no bulk-dispensed, unpackaged items.  (So much for that oatmeal on the grocery list.)



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