Local News
New manager, owner for mall movie theater found
OSKALOOSA — Back in September, the rumor mill was churning out the idea that Penn Centre Theatre could close, leaving Oskaloosa without a movie theater.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
“We’re not packing up and leaving in the middle of the night,” said Brian Fridley of R.L. Fridley Theatres. Inc. back in mid-September.
However, Fridley Theatres is leaving Oskaloosa as of Oct. 30, according to Patti Ryan, Penn Central Mall manager. Fridley Theatres have operated out of the Penn Centre Theater since the mid-1990s. The mall owns the Penn Centre Theatre building and was leasing the property to Fridley Theatres.
“Fridley wasn’t going to just leave,” she said. “They where going to stay as long as they needed to.”
In September, Fridley said his company had began working on finding someone to take on their lease with the theatre.
“If someone had the cash, we could do it next week,” he said Sept. 14.
Ryan said an individual will own and manage a movie theater business out of that building. She added, this individual will be an Oskaloosa resident, which Ryan called a good thing. The individual’s identity remained unreleased at press time.
“He’ll be a hands-on owner/manager,” said Ryan Tuesday afternoon. “It’ll be someone right here who’ll have a vested interest in the property. He’ll make every effort to make it bigger and better.”
Oskaloosa is not the only city Fridley Theatres is leaving. Other communities they are transitioning out of include Knoxville, Mount Pleasant and Manchester. Fridley Theatres is based in Des Moines and the company has cinemas in nearly 30 Iowa cities. This was done to “trim things down a bit,” according to Fridley.
A message left with Fridley was not returned at press time.
The identity of the new owner/manager of Penn Centre Theatre will be revealed in a future issue of The Oskaloosa Herald.
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Herald City Editor Andy Goodell can be reached at news2@oskyherald.com
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