Movie theater, market to anchor 'new' 40th Street

Construction on the Robert Redford-planned cinema should wrap up next year. Haverford Senior High School '98 Havertown, Pa. The storyline has been scripted, the actors cast and the location set. And now, the final scene is about to be shot. Construction began last month on the Sundance Cinemas movie theater complex -- a pet project of movie mogul Robert Redford -- and a specialty food market with an 800-car parking garage above it. "The whole notion is getting people back on the streets at all hours of the day," Penn Executive Vice President John Fry said when University officials released construction plans in April. Construction on the site -- located on the northwest and southwest corners of 40th and Walnut streets -- is expected to be completed within one year. The project was announced last fall when Redford visited Penn's campus. The theater -- a joint venture between General Cinemas and Redford's company, Sundance Cinemas -- and parking garage with a fresh-foods market on the ground floor are set to open in spring 2000. The plans for the theater complex are hardly ordinary. In addition to eight movie screens, there will also be an independently operated restaurant, a tapas bar, an outdoor cafe, an espresso bar, gardens, a town-hall component, a lecture hall and a reflecting pool. "The big idea is you come, you see the film and you have the opportunity to hang out afterwards," Fry said, noting that Redford's vision for his theaters includes a place where film lovers can stay to discuss the movie. Inside the cinema there will likely be a video store that will carry a "focused" selection of independent films and some retail on the upper level that will sell Sundance merchandise, Tom Lussenhop, the University's top real estate official, said in April. The restaurant and coffee bars in the Sundance complex will be operated by popular Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr, who is also in discussions to open a restaurant in the Sansom Common hotel-and-retail complex. Starr has been tapped by Redford to operate restaurants in all of Sundance's locations, Fry said. The Fresh Grocer.com, the fresh foods supermarket that will be on the first level of the garage, will have "everything a regular supermarket has but with an emphasis on fresh foods," according to Pat Burns, who will operate the market. The market will include an indoor and outdoor cafe -- which will serve beer and wine -- a sushi bar, juice bar and fresh meats, salads and flowers. The transparent garage above the market will hold 800 cars, which officials said will go a long way toward alleviating the University's parking crunch. Space will probably be even tighter once the theater and a new dental center opens nearby. Both Sundance and the parking garage/grocery store were designed by Carlos Zapata, a famed Boston-based architect, and The Moderns, an interior design and graphics firm. The project has gained the widespread support of community leaders, who feel that it will spur further revitalization of the 40th Street corridor. Fry speculated that the market would attract 400,000 more pedestrians to 40th and Walnut, while the cinema will attract another 200,000 -- which, coupled with Sansom Common, could make University City a destination spot for Philadelphians, a longtime goal of Fry and University President Judith Rodin.