BALDWIN HILLS : Eight-Theater Plan Gets Mixed Reviews

Plans for an eight-theater complex at the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza have been met by mall merchants with a mix of excitement, relief and flat-out skepticism.

“Finally!� exclaimed August Gagnier, owner of Gagnier’s Creole restaurant. “They dragged their feet a long time. Now we’ll get more traffic and more stores leasing. It’s too bad politics got in the way of it happening sooner. I’m looking forward to it.�

Construction of the movie center, which is owned and operated by Inner Cities Cinema Inc., the nation’s first African-American-run movie exhibitor, will begin by year’s end and be completed by spring.

“This is great for the mall,� said Linda Gray, marketing director for the plaza the past three years. “It’ll definitely attract national tenants and increase foot traffic significantly.�

Gray said the second-story theaters will offer the community--and South-Central Los Angeles in general--an option it has sorely lacked for a long time: first-run movies. “People won’t have to drive out to a show now,� she said. “It enriches the community by giving it a choice.�

Juan Armando Minniefield, owner of Armando men’s clothing, said simply that it was “about time.� Minniefield, who also owns a store in Culver City’s Fox Hills Mall, bluntly described the four-year-old plaza as a “ghost town.�

“I hope a lot of us here can hang on till spring to reap the benefits the theaters will bring,� he said.

Across the way, at Radiance Boutique, site manager Maribel Covarrubias had reservations of a different nature: “(The theaters) might increase business, but I hope they don’t allow troublemaking teen-agers in. We have great security, but things will depend on the types of movies they show. Hopefully the movies will be more family-oriented, without showing a lot of violence or gang activity.�

With a Los Angeles Police Department substation in the mall, Gray said, she doesn’t expect trouble. “Overall,� she said, “the theaters will be a very positive addition.�