Brookfield town officials delay acting on cinema plan at The Corners for lack of details

Brookfield town officials say they need more information about a movie theater proposed for The Corners mixed-use development.

The Plan Commission on Monday night tabled a proposal seeking conceptual approval for the possible nine-screen cinema, said Town Clerk Elisa Cappozzo.

Commission members told ‎Robert Gould, vice president at IM Property Investments (USA) LLC, and other representatives of The Corners that they weren't necessarily opposed to a possible cinema, Cappozzo said Tuesday.

However, commission members also said they need more information before they would even consider conceptual approval, she said.

One concern is whether The Corners parking garage, which is beneath the development's stores, restaurants and apartments, is large enough to also accommodate a movie theater, Cappozzo said.

Gould and other representatives of The Corners have declined to name the theater's prospective operator. Building plans haven't yet been filed with town officials.

The theater would be within a 38-foot vertical addition built on top of Building D at The Corners.

That building, on the east side of development, features Free People among its street-level retail tenants, with Dempsey Place apartments above a portion of the building.

The theater would apparently be built behind those apartments, above a portion of The Corners' parking garage.

A theater was not part of the original plans for The Corners, which received final approval from the Town Board in February 2015.

However, The Corners site, between Interstate 94 and W. Blue Mound Road, east of Barker Road, once included a cinema operated by Marcus Corp. That cinema closed when Marcus opened its nearby Majestic Cinemas and was later demolished to make way for the new mixed-use project.

Marcus was the original developer of The Corners. In 2015, London-based IM Properties and Chicago-based Bradford Real Estate Group LLC bought a majority stake in the project.

That joint venture agreement resulted in Marcus Corp. retaining a 10% stake in The Corners, according to the company's annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That agreement includes an option for Marcus to sell its stake to IM Properties and Bradford Real Estate "for an agreed-upon amount one year after the project is open and has reached a specified percentage of space leased," according to the annual report.

The Corners began opening stores, including its Von Maur department store anchor, in April. The apartments are starting to open, and a grand opening celebration for The Corners is scheduled for this weekend.

The Town Board in February 2014 approved borrowing $34.4 million to help finance The Corners, which will have an estimated property value of $176 million.

Most of the town funds will pay for the project's parking structure. The town also could spend an additional $3 million, with the $37.4 million repaid within an estimated 20 years through new property taxes generated by The Corners.

Plans for The Corners first surfaced in early 2011.

Tom Daykin can be reached attdaykin@jrn.com