Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Coming to Sugar Land The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at Imperial Market in Sugar Land will break ground in 2016 as part of a newly constructed, two-story retail building within the development.[/caption]

Imperial Market, the future mixed-use development at the site of the former Imperial Sugar plant in Sugar Land, has landed Alamo Drafthouse Cinema as one of its first major tenants.

“Sugar Land has always been on our radar as a potential site for an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema,” said Neil Billingsley-Michaelson, CEO and president of Triple Tap Ventures LLC, the owner and operator of the Houston Alamo Drafthouse Cinema locations. “Sugar Land and its surrounding communities have people who like to go to the movies, and we think we can be successful there and believe we can deliver some great content to those communities.”

Billingsley-Michaelson said the Imperial Market development was chosen because of the overall scope of the development, including its architecture, the multifamily component of the project and the retail and dining tenants the developers of the project are seeking to attract.

“The Imperial Market development really worked well for a cinema space and was the right development for our next location, and we could not be happier to be a part of this development,” he said. “It’s a home run in our view.”

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at Imperial Market is expected to break ground in 2016 and will be located in a two-story retail building that will be constructed as part of the development, Billingsley-Michaelson said. Similar to other Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, the Sugar Land location will offer a full-service beverage and dining experience that will include a vast number of local beers on tap, cocktails and an expansive food menu that features a number of made-from-scratch items.

While final design of the Sugar Land location is not expected for the next few months, Billingsley-Michaelson said the new location will house between eight and 10 screens and be about 55,000 square feet.

“We need to make sure that the auditoriums are set up for the best presentation of what we offer, but the Imperial Market location will likely have 10 screens,” he said.

Imperial Market, which is being developed by Geoffrey Jones and James Murnane, is an 850,000-square-foot mixed-use development that will break ground in March and is slated to open in summer 2017. The development features a 274-unit luxury multifamily complex, 106,000 square feet of Class A office space, a 185-room boutique hotel, 275,000 square feet of upscale retail space and more than 2 acres of park and green space.

“We could not be happier to have Alamo Drafthouse Cinema as a tenant at Imperial Market,” Jones said. “It is a Texas born and bred company and we have always felt it offers the best movie-going experience.”

Jones said the addition of Alamo Drafthouse to Imperial Market will also help attract more retailers and restaurants to the development.

“Any time you have the opportunity to sign a big lease with a client like Alamo, you will have retailers clamoring for the opportunity to be a part of your project,” he said. “Having Alamo Drafthouse creates a gravitational pull that will bring with it a number of retail tenants.”

On Dec. 1, Sugar Land City Council unanimously approved the plans and rezoning for the 26-acre tract that will house Imperial Market.