Kyle has always been a city without a movie theater, but if two developers get their way, residents will have two large-scale entertainment complexes to choose from by summer 2014.
In a special meeting June 20, City Council approved an incentive package for Schulman Partners LTD to bring the first movie theater in the city to the Village of Kyle shopping center, which is located near Kyle Parkway and I-35, and on Aug. 13, the planning and zoning commission is scheduled to consider a conditional-use permit request by Texas Cinema to build an as-yet-untitled 75,000-square-foot entertainment complex at Kyle Town Centre near Kohler's Crossing and I-35.
According to the city's website, the Schulman project will include a movie theater, restaurant, bowling alleys, an arcade and more.
Mitchell Roberts, whose family owns Texas Cinema, said his $13 million project will include 12 movie screens, a two-story laser tag arena, an arcade, bowling alleys and a bar and restaurant. Roberts said when City Council approved the tax incentive package for the Schulman project, he decided it was "time to kick it into high gear."
"We're moving really quickly, so we're definitely on track for a summer 2014 opening," Roberts said.
Kyle Economic Development Director Diana Blank said she was surprised when she found out about the development. For many years, Cinemark, a theater development company that is related to Texas Cinema by family, had doubts that Kyle could support one of its theaters, she said. Blank said she is confident the city could support one project on the scale of what Schulman and Roberts are proposing, but two could be a challenge.
"They're two really big projects that are, from what they proposed, very similar," Blank said. "I think one of them could be very strongly supported and be very successful. Two of them? I don't know if that would work."
Blank compared the two recent development announcements to the period after H-E-B and Seton Medical Center moved into Kyle and many other retailers and medical offices began to enter the city's market.
Texas Cinema also owns and operates two theaters in San Marcos and one in New Braunfels, but Roberts said the project in Kyle will be unlike anything the company has done before.
"This is a fairly new concept among theaters in general," Roberts said. "The Schulmans have a few, but this is kind of a larger scale of what they have."
The tax incentive package approved by council will grant Schulman Theaters tax rebates and waivers of the city's development fees. According to the city's website, the package will save the developer $1.1 million over 15 years.
Roberts said he does not have any plans to seek out an economic development incentive package for his project, which he said has been in the works for more than two years.
"Finally we just looked at it and said, 'This project is too cool to let it go, and Kyle is growing like a weed, so we're going to go in,'" Roberts said.
City officials said Roberts and Texas Cinema have not yet purchased the property being discussed.