The Grosse Pointe War Memorial has officially announced the addition of a movie theater called The Patriot Cinema.

“There’s nothing like this in our community, so we are able to really make sure that young families, young people and seniors have a safe and comfortable place to be entertained, to be challenged and to have conversation,” Charles Burke, President and CEO of The War Memorial, said. “It’s what The War Memorial is suppose to be as a community leader.”

According to The War Memorial, they have partnered with Michigan-oriented company Emagine Entertainment to make the experience as nice and as comfortable as possible. The War Memorial now has permission to use Emagine Entertainment’s content, like their technology, food items and video content.

The theater space in the War Memorial will be refurbished to form the creative and unusual multiplatform entertainment experience called The Patriot Cinema. The theater space currently contains 442 seats, when the refurbishing is finished it will feature about 250 luxury recliners. The iconic stage will remain there making the space available for both performances and movies, according to The Patriot Cinema’s website.

“It will still be able to be a live action space, so we will still be able to have live theater, live discussions, and live performances,” Burke said. “In addition to that we can show important art films, we have also the ability to show conversations of the day, and we will also show some first-run films too.”

The theater is expected to begin construction sometime this summer. Currently there is work being discussed about renderings and architectural drawings.

The theater room was built in the early 1960s, and it has not been any refurbishments or upgrades since it was constructed, only repairs.

The Patriot Cinema is being paid for by a combination of sponsorship’s, philanthropy, and a large investment made by The War Memorial. The War Memorial is using this opportunity to give back to the community.

“It’s important to know though that a portion of every sale is going to go into a fund that we have here called the Patriot Initiative Fund, where we give a portion of those dollars to veteran organizations and other charitable organizations,” said Burke.

The War Memorial is not going to be home to the only theater in Grosse Pointe. Currently there are only two small theaters in all of Grosse Pointe, the Okulski Family Theater and the Carol C. Schaap Theater. Both are located in Windmill Pointe Park in Grosse Pointe Park.

Unlike the movie theaters at Windmill Pointe, Patriot Cinemas will be available to all of the public and not exclusively to the citizens of Grosse Pointe Park.

“We are an open and public building where all people are welcome and we are proud of the fact that we are accessible to all people,” Burke said. “All people are welcome to be here and this is a public space, I think that is something we should be very proud of as a community.”

The War Memorial will be hiring workers to run the movie theater. “We are going to be looking for a lot of employees. So if there’s any South High School students who would like to come work in the concession stands, we would be happy to have them,” said Burke.

Some students, such as Katie Kuhr ‘17, worry about the parking situation at The War Memorial for The Patriot Cinema.

“I do not see how all the cars will be able to fit when they start showing movies. I know when they have the War Dances and other activities parking is always overflowed, even sometimes onto the street,” said Kuhr.

However, The War Memorial has a different view on their current parking situation, according to Burke.

“There has always been for years, parking issues when there is activities at the church, activities in the ballroom, activities in house, and activities in the current theater. There are a lot of seats when you add that up, so since we are putting in luxury seats, we are able to fit the building to the number of parking spaces we have,” Burke said. “Our goal is to be very respectful to our neighbors and to not overflow into the streets as much as we have been and to really it into the campus that we have. We know that the number of seats is going to enable us to have better parking flow and a more stress-free environment.”

Overpopulating at the theater won’t be as big of a problem as it might seem. There is only one screening room, so there will be limited tickets sold. Having one screening room means there will only be limited showtimes, so the ability to wait in between show times will not happen.

“The War Memorial is actually the ideal place, because we are in the heart of our community of Grosse Pointe, we are a well known institution, we are unique, we have had a space that has existed for years sitting idle for lengths of time during the year, Burke said. “The War Memorial is the perfect place for people to gather. I actually think we are a perfect place for a lot of things to happen and one of those things is the movie theater.”

According to Burke Grosse Pointe is the ideal place for a movie theater, but other students also think so, like Baird Perkins ‘19.

“All of Grosse Pointe needed a close and active movie theater, I’m glad and thankful that the War Memorial is giving that to us,” Perkins said.