Landmark Cinemas to open near new Costco summer 2019

The new Costco on the eastern edge of Regina will have plenty of space to itself for quite a while because the next big opening for the Aurora Development won’t be until mid-summer 2019.

Phase two of the development east of Prince of Wales Drive will be anchored by a new Landmark Cinemas featuring eight luxury-style theatres with recliner seats.

Although the original reports and news release from December 2016 slated the theatre for a spring 2018 opening, the developer said it was always meant to open after the Costco.

Blair Forester, president of Forester Harvard Developments, said the theatre was intended to open in the spring of 2019, but the plans had to be pushed back by a few months.

“With some of the steel tariffs that have been imposed on the construction industry, we’ve been looking at some redesigns of the theatre that would bring it in a little closer to budget, and that pushed back the opening by about three or four months,” Forester explained.

The openings of several restaurants are also expected to coincide with the opening of the theatre to draw more customers.

“If you’ve been to the site lately you’ll see that all the grade beams are poured on the first three buildings that are going up on the site and you’ll start seeing steel erected pretty quickly,” Forester said. “So most of the activity and the openings at the site are going to be summer 2019.”

The developer is still in active negotiations with a few other retail outlets for the project.

Old Costco to remain empty for now

The former Costco building on Victoria Avenue East and University Park Drive will remain empty for the time being.

The City of Regina confirmed to 980 CJME it has not received or reviewed any applications for future use of the site. Any new businesses looking to redevelop the location would have to submit a proposal for approval through the established review process at city hall

— With files from 980 CJME’s Joseph Ho