Georgia Theatre Company's Park 12 Cobb Cinemas has closed. The 12 screen theater, located at 2925 W. Frank Gordy Parkway in East Cobb, closed as of December 31, according to ToNeTo Atlanta reader in the community and confirmed by a notice on the theater's website. As of Sunday afternoon, there was no signage at the theater to indicate the closure. The theater's website directed would-be patrons to the company's sister location, Merchants Walk Stadium Cinemas 12, about seven miles away.
"In response to an increasingly challenging theatrical landscape and sustained key market closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Regal Cinemas in early October "temporarily suspended" operations at all of their locations nationwide, including more than a dozen in metro Atlanta. Rival operator AMC had been closed for several months (and at the brink of bankruptcy) before they reopened in August on a limited basis with limited capacity.
St. Simons Island-based GTC operates 24 theater locations in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia. Georgia is the chain's largest market with 21 locations including one on Washington Road in Augusta - Masters 7 - that is marked "temporarily closed" on the GTC website.
In January 2020, GTC founder and chairman William Stembler announced the sale of his company to the Georgia Theatre Company Stock Ownership Trust. “Our employees are the foundation of Georgia Theatre Company,” Stembler said. “By transitioning to an employee-owned company, we are empowering them to play an integral role in the company’s future. My family and I are grateful for this opportunity to reward our employees for their hard work, loyalty and contributions by creating the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).” This move creates an ownership structure similar to Lakeland, Florida-based Publix wherein the grocery store's employees are owners of the business through an ESOP.
It's unclear why GTC opted to close Park 12 or if other closures are planned. Also unclear is what's next for the 5.8 acre site that the Cobb County Tax Assessors office valued at nearly $6 million in 2020. German discount grocer Lidl abandoned plans in 2017 to open a new grocery store on the site of the theater after the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 against the grocer's planned redevelopment.
Are you sad to see Park 12 close? When was the last time you were in a movie theater? What did you see? What would you like to see open on the site of the now former Park 12 Cinemas?
Please share your thoughts below.