The theater is part of the Five Star Cinemas group. The post indicated that gift cards and reward cards would still be honored at their other locations in Chanhassen, Excelsior and Buffalo.
Updated. Five Star Cinemas Owner Glenn Baird sent the Herald this note. We also interviewed Baird, and will include more on the closing in an upcoming story:
"Since acquiring the cinema in Aug of '04 there has been countless group of employees and managers who have tried and gave it their best effort to make it a success. Unfortunately, the Rex has struggled financially ever since.
"It is a great little theater that tried, but just couldn't get over the hump.
"The Rex has created countless memories for many people over the years. With the coming transition to digital cinema in our industry, the ever increasing operating costs, we struggled to find the point where we might realize a turnaround and cannot justify continuing.
"I sincerely appreciate all of our great and loyal guests who kept us going to this point, unfortunately, we were not able to win over enough of them to stay viable.
"Chaska is a great community. Competition for entertainment dollars is tough, I wish the Rex could have succeeded."
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There was a time when Chaska Farm & Garden was slated to move onto the Mill House Gallery property, but that plan never came to fruition and as business and traffic continued to decline, owner Tom Hayden decided to get out of the business all together. When I interviewed him as he was getting ready to close, he did not hold a grudge against the city whatsoever. In fact, he was quite complimentary of the help they had offered to try and find him a new home to keep him downtown.
The gas station north of Walgreen's is in foreclosure so there is little leverage the city has to get anything done there. They can only really highlight the property to developers that call into City Hall looking for an abandoned gas station to call their own.
Sad the Rex is gone, but will still shop my local stores. I appreciate the convenience and service they offer!
Sorry to say, but this has nothing to do with the City Council. Chaska citizens need to step up and shop local.
That's all well and good, but in order to draw consumers, you need to offer them a product or service they want or need. It's easy to sit behind your computer and chastise people for not supporting local businesses, but there are meager offerings in DT Chaska. The businesses also need to be reasonably accessible. Putting the median in on Chestnut / 41 was a disaster to say the least. It eliminated a lot of parking (which is already very poor), and made access to the businesses on the street inconvenient to get to. And the reality is, if it’s not convenient in today’s busy world, it will be overlooked and bypassed.
I disagree with you stating the City Council has nothing to do with this. They have EVERYTHING to do with this. They need to offer incentives to prospective businesses to build and or locate here. They forced out 3 businesses via Eminent Domain on the intersection of 41 & 61. Why? For what? I see no development there. If I were a business owner, I’d be hesitant to move to DT Chaska. Will the same thing happen to my business if someone on the council decides they have a better idea for the parcel and acts on a whim? And on top of that, to see NOTHING happening by way of development of those parcels is reprehensible to say the least!
Also, state law regarding eminent domain was changed following the Ohnsorg transaction. The city wouldn't be able to do that deal today.
You are correct on both points. But, did the city pushed back on the State regarding the median? Did the city present the detrimental effects the median would have on the downtown district, and if they did present opposition to it, how hard did they really push?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do recall hearing how beautiful and wonderful it was going to be when it was completed. I do know a couple of the construction workers that worked on the project. Even they said it was one of the most boneheaded ideas they’d ever seen. I think there is more to the plan than you or I will ever know.
As for the Eminent Domain law change; the point I was trying to make was that the knee jerk, shoot from the hip governing that seems to be common in Chaska is not inviting to new businesses. And it cost us revenue from 3 businesses that have yet to be replaced.
They didn’t have a solid plan when they exercised their right of Eminent Domain.
You say that the city needs to offer incentives - what kind of incentives? Can you be more specific?
I do believe there are implications of this for the redevelopment plan, even if the development plan is not responsible for this outcome. It definitely is not an optimistic sign for the future, and may provide further evidence to support the belief (which I hold) that the idea of achieving a revitalized Excelsior-like downtown is unrealistic and our goals need to be much more modest.
I was with you until your last sentence. You list off all the vacant commercial space downtown, then go on to "dis" the "vanity antique stores" as tying up rental space. Huh? Aren't they businesses too? You don't think they pay rent? Don't these "independent" businesses draw people downtown too? Sort of a nasty comment...lighten up!
It's fun to blame the government I suppose. If it is their responsibility to drive the private industry I guess you also need to give them the kudos for all of the businesses that have started, survived and appear to be thriving.
Kudos to Chaska!
(Not a city employee!)
So...Embers gone. Movie theater gone. Chaska Farm & Garden gone. Ohnsorgs Truck Repair gone. Chaska Building Center gone. The city council will probably put barbed wire around the gazebo next. What exactly is the downtown business development plan? Drive everything out except those vanity antique stores by the river that are open what... 2 days a month and tie-up rental space? Super.