Landmark Theatres will open a six-screen multiplex at the forthcoming Atlantic Plumbing development off U Street, Northwest, continuing the District’s apparent movie theater boom. The theater’s announcement comes not long after the unveiling of plans for new, upscale cinemas in Navy Yard and NoMa, which are rapidly filling up with gleaming new mixed-use developments.
JBG is transforming the Atlantic Plumbing site, about a block from the 9:30 Club at the corner of 8th and V streets, into a mixed-use development featuring retail and high-end apartments set to open in early 2015. The firm also announced last month that it is building an adjacent block into another project, called “The Shay.”
Landmark, which specializes in independent and foreign features, and sells fancy concessions and alcoholic beverages, already has two theaters in downtown DC and Bethesda. It is also planning to open a 10-screen theater at JBG’s Capitol Point development in NoMa, which is scheduled for completion in late 2016.
Upscale movie theaters theaters are apparently becoming the default amenities for Washington’s raft of new mixed-use projects. Along with Landmark’s two planned cinemas, DC is also lined up to get an eight-screen Angelika Film Center in a development near Union Market in 2015, and a 16-screen Showplace Icon multiplex at a Navy Yard development in 2016.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
