When the Columbia City Cinema in Seattle, Washington closed in July 2011, it left the future of showing movies in the building in question, due to issues with building codes and the fact that many in the community reportedly helped to raise funds to keep it running (Read the Journal article). That future became brighter recently when it re-opened on December 8, 2012 as the Ark Lodge Cinemas.

The re-opening of the theater generated quite a bit of news coverage, including an article in the Seattle Met:

But neighborhood loyalty—not to mention $200,000 in loans from locals—ultimately couldn’t save the business. In 2010, city inspectors found that the building lacked required fire alarm and sprinkler systems, and the theater’s operator, Paul Doyle, opted to close the following year rather than try to raise enough cash for the upgrades. And there the building sat for months, its projectors gathering dust.

Enter David McRae. McRae’s lived nearby in Beacon Hill for two decades and is well aware of how desperately Columbia City loves its cinema. “People never stopped talking about whether it was going to come back,” he says. And he knows something about theater -operation—his parents ran a handful around the Seattle area, including the Cine-Mond in Redmond—so last summer he started to look into leasing the space. The sprinkler system would set him back more than $80,000 (and then there was the $15,000 he’d have to sink into replacing copper wiring that a squatter had ripped off), but he took the leap last fall, announcing the theater would reopen this January, rechristened as the Ark Lodge Cinema.

Click the Read link to view the full article. To see what's playing at the theater, please visit the Showtimes page.

Related News Articles

• Columbia City’s Cinema Is Back -- Seattle Met [Dec 19, 2012]
• Neighborhood Cinema to Reopen Saturday With ‘Lord of the Rings’ Marathon -- Rainier Valley Post [Dec 5, 2012]
• Columbia City Cinema re-opening is this weekend -- KOMO News Radio [Dec 6, 2012]
• Columbia City's Ark Lodge Cinemas opening early -- The Seattle Times [Dec 4, 2012]