Franconia resident David Sallas looked into the pit in Kingstowne were the bucket loaders were shoveling dirt into the dump trucks. They were clearing a spot between two shopping centers for a multiscreen movie theater, which was a selling point for Kingstowne Realtors in the 1990s but was temporarily shelved before the wheels went into motion again.
Sallas heard about the proposed theater from a Realtor when he looked at a townhouse in Kingstowne in 1992.
"They said movies are coming soon," Sallas said. "I thought they'd given up on that."
Developers almost did give up on it, too, years ago when movies seemed to be slumping, said Kingstowne homeowners association spokesperson Ronda DeSplinter.
"At that time, the entire movie theater industry was down," DeSplinter said.
Kingstowne even had talks with The Expo Design Center, a high-scale home improvement store, which was interested in the site for a while, but that interest faded. Now, the 16-screen theater will be the anchor for the entire shopping area.
"Any commercial area needs an anchor," said DeSplinter. "It sounds like a good fit for that area. I can only point to the success of the summer concerts. People are hungry in this area for a place they can walk or have a short drive to."
DeSplinter does remember some homeowners complaining that the town center and theater were on the plan when they bought their homes, but they had never been built.
"There was some impatience on the side of the homeowners on the town center," she said. "The commercial areas are always the last to be built."
Halle Cos. is building the commercial properties in Kingstowne including the theater. Richard Rounds, Halle engineer, looked forward to completing the project.
"Site work is under way, getting the pad ready," he said. "It's a multiplex, with stadium seating."
Once completed, the theater will be run by Consolidated Theaters of North Carolina. According to Consolidated Theaters, the Kingstowne facility will be 80,000 square feet in size, with 3,800 stadium seats for its 16 screens. Upscale concessions including coffee and pizza by Pizzeria Uno, and Coca-Cola products will be available. Consolidated is based in Charlotte, N.C., and operates 16 theaters with 222 screens in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
OTHER THEATERS in the area include two theater facilities in Springfield Mall and a relatively new theater at the Hoffman Building in Alexandria. The Kingstowne theater will have arena seating, similar to the Hoffman Theater.
Julie Montgomery comes over to Kingstowne to shop occasionally. She didn't know about the upcoming theater, but she has been to the theaters at the Hoffman Building.
"The arena seating is awesome," she said.
Alexandria resident James Giles frequents the area.
"The mall's right around the corner," he said. "It has a theater in it. The parking lot here is already crowded."
Supervisor Dana Kauffman (D-Lee) feels that parking won't be an issue with the design the builder is using, in addition to the hours for the theater vs. the Monday through Friday offices in the immediate area.
"The theater will be sitting on top of structured parking," he said.
Kauffman has been working on instilling a sense of community in the Kingstowne area for a few years. He feels the theaters will be part of that effort, along with a bicycle tour that goes through Kingstowne, the attendance at the summer concert series and the Kingstowne Park that opened last year.