Albuquerque Development Thread

[ABQalex]

The new Flix Brewhouse location on the east side is scheduled to open in May. They had a tour for our local media last week showing the progress so far to renovate the former UA High Ridge 8 theater for their use. Below are stories and pics from KOB-TV and the Albuquerque Journal about the project and its anticipated opening early next month.

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/new-f...e-albuquerque/

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – After years of planning, the Flix Brewhouse on the eastside is finally coming to fruition.

“It doesn’t always line up with the expectations of construction schedules and permitting and all those other things. But we are almost there, we will be open the first week of May,” said Chance Robertson, CEO of Flix Brewhouse.

Robertson says their location on the westside has always done well, and they’ve been looking for an opportunity to bring that experience to the other part of town.

“We have often found ourselves saying, ‘I wish we had a few more seats, I wish we had a few more screens.’ So when this opportunity came available to not only get a few more seats and a few more screens and get to the other side of town, we know people in ABQ are either eastside or westside often, so we wanted to make sure we were on both sides of town,” said Robertson.

“This is the first city to have two Flix Brewhouses, and we base it off revenue and admits, and the requests for the people in the community to want to bring this to this location,” said Victor Lopstaine, regional director of operations for Flix Brewhouse.

Aside from business on the eastside, they also hope being next to Hinkle Family Fun Center will bring more business to the area.

“I think there is just a lot of that, ‘Oh it’s in our neighborhood now too,’ that is the thing we are hearing the most about and that is super exciting for us and we can’t wait to get open,” said Robertson.

https://www.abqjournal.com/business/...ca42e671c.html

Dust filled the air at Flix Brewhouse’s soon-to-be Northeast Heights location on Wednesday, as construction workers bustled about in preparation for an anticipated opening in May.

The space, located next to the Hinkle Family Fun Center on the corner of Indian School and Tramway NE, is undergoing renovations that will transform the former Regal UA High Ridge movie theater into Albuquerque’s second Flix Brewhouse, a Texas-based dine-in movie theater and brewery chain.

The location, which will be staffed by 130 people, will bring the company’s number of locations to 11 and Albuquerque’s total locations to two, making Albuquerque the only city with a pair, said the company’s CEO, Chance Robertson. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has multiple locations, but they reside in different towns, he explained.

Flix Brewhouse, founded in 2011, first came to New Mexico in 2016, opening its first location on the West Side. Robertson, a native of New Mexico, said the location has performed “incredibly,” despite being closed much of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When we opened in Albuquerque, we were received with just completely open arms,” Robertson said.

The warm embrace is a big part of why the company decided to expand with a second location, Robertson said.

“We’ve always just been really busy in Albuquerque,” he said. “We also know that Albuquerque is kind of a town where you’re either on the West Side or you’re on the East Side, so when this opportunity came up, it just made too much sense for us.”

The company first announced that it was opening a second location in 2023, around the same time that the former Regal UA High Ridge shut its doors. At the time, the company was aiming for an early 2024 opening, but it discovered that the 28,000 square-foot building, constructed in 1989, presented more surprises and “skeletons in the closet” than originally thought, Robertson said.

The site, which Flix is leasing long term from Hinkle Income Properties, is still under construction but has completed the majority of renovations — including converting one of the building’s eight auditoriums into a kitchen. Robertson said renovation costs will exceed $6 million.

The renovation marks the company’s first time entering and outfitting a former theater space, according to Summer Hasan, head of marketing and brand for Flix Entertainment.

The location will have seven theater rooms featuring Dolby immersive sound, laser projection and around 700 luxury electric recliners equipped with a service button and the company’s new sliding and pivoting tabletops. It will also have a microbrewery and a restaurant that seats around 40 people.

“It’s a full movie experience and a full kind of restaurant experience,” Robertson said, adding that the company doesn’t claim to have the best restaurant but does aim to have the best hospitality and interactive dinner-and-a-movie experience.

People can visit the restaurant without attending a movie, said Victor Lopstain, an executive general manager with Flix Brewhouse. He added that some of the most popular menu items are the pizza, the Nebulas IPA craft beer and the warm cookie dessert.

Robertson said the company expects to open the location the first week of May, barring any last-minute surprises or shipping delays.

“I think there’s a range of emotions. Certainly overwhelming. Excitement is the No. 1 thing,” Robertson said. “I’m most excited for that first day.”