Movie theaters plan to reopen while ‘The Garrison’ remains dormant

For many moviegoers, it seemed like July 15 could not come fast enough.

That was the date that movie theater chains nationwide announced when they would reopen their doors since closing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the opening date has been pushed back to July 30 due to recent spikes in people testing positive for the virus.

Although the date has been pushed back, the big question: Which theaters will reopen? Moviegoers in the area from Fredericksburg to Woodbridge and Culpepper to Manassas are waiting to find out if their local cinema will soon reopen.

So far no announcements have come forward from chains like AMC and Regal about which local theaters will be part of the first wave of reopenings.

In the meantime, those chains and many others have made announcements on how they’ve changed their operations to serve customers in a post-lockdown world. AMC has listed on its website their Safe and Clean policy that sees the continued health and well-being of its customers as a top priority.

Alamo Drafthouse, which has a location in Woodbridge, is also beefing up its cleaning procedures as well. Its coronavirus safety page runs down its policies which are similar to AMC’s and even comes with an 8-bit style video that illustrates what they intend to do.

The video shows policies such as online ticket purchasing, wearing of masks, hand sanitizer dispensers made available throughout the building, and deep cleaning of seats after the show ends.

Both theaters enhanced policies fall in line with their adherence to social distancing and the wearing of masks. That doesn’t necessarily mean that screening rooms are going to be sparse.

According to an article in “Variety,” which has a map of the county provided by the National Association of Theater Owners, Virginia will be one of about 20 states where AMC will be allowed to operate at 70% seating capacity.

But will this save the theater business? Both AMC and Regal have declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Regal has already closed over 60 of its locations.

Still no theater in Stafford

One theater that has been advertised since 2016, but has seen no signs of going into operation is The Regal Garrison. The Garrison was reported to be a 12 screen, 50,539 square-foot theater which was to be operated by Regal Entertainment Group.

An older Regal Cinema at Aquia Town Center

The theater was purported to be the anchor of a new 500,000 square foot mixed-use community called “The Garrison at Stafford” which was to be built off of Garrisonville Road. As of today, there’s been no movement at the project site.

“We still have plans to build ‘The Garrison’ and the accompanying movie theater but things have slowed down due to the pandemic,” commented Pence Group President Geoff Pence to Potomac Local News.

Pence comments come as other construction projects in Stafford County have flourished during the pandemic. Crews building a self-storage development at Shelton Shop Road, three miles from the site of “The Garrison” never slowed during the pandemic.

Highway crews also took advantage of lighter traffic volumes to speed up work on multiple projects, such as building a new bridge for Interstate 95 over the Rappahannock River, as well as accelerating the work on the I-66 E-ZPass Express Lanes between Gainesville and the Captial Beltway.