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Ponca City Development Authority (PCDA) is our local economic development engine. An award-winning and accredited economic development organization, PCDA was developed to help facilitate industry growth in our community, but their scope and reach goes so much further than that. They are invested in ensuring that Ponca City grows in every way. An important focus in economic development is workforce. PCDA’s Ponca Works program is dedicated to connecting local employers with the skilled individuals they need to grow their businesses. A key element to attracting workers is being able to show them a vibrant and thriving community.
When Ponca City’s AMC Theater closed permanently in 2020, PCDA staff saw what a blow this was to our community. They knew losing this avenue of entertainment would affect workforce recruitment. Per the stipulations of their trust, PCDA has always been able to incentivize entertainment. First-class entertainment is key to job recruitment and retention. Plain and simple, people don’t want to move to a community that doesn’t offer much to do. PCDA staff had discussed incentivizing a movie Theater for more than 10 years but knew the right project would need to come along at the right time to ensure maximum benefit for Ponca City and its citizens.
As the economy began to climb out of the COVID-19 slump, PCDA staff watched the movie industry begin to rebound. They did their due diligence, watched the numbers and created reports about what was going on in the film industry. What they saw made them realize it may be time to pursue bringing a Theater back to Ponca City. They hired a consultant, Retail Attractions, that specializes in connecting economic developers with successful businesses. It was through this consulting agency that PCDA connected with ICON Cinemas Theater owner Stetson Snell. PCDA purchased the AMC property and signed a seven-year lease-to-own contract with ICON Cinemas. Liz Leaming with PCDA explains, “They will pay us a lease rate each month to operate the Theater and have to keep it open for at least that period of time. They are doing all the renovations. Over the course of the contract, the economic impact of this Theater is going to be over $10,000,000 to the Ponca City Community.”
Stetson Snell, owner of Ponca City’s future ICON Cinema, is just as excited about this new venture as PCDA staff. ICON Cinemas are owned by several Snell family members. There are ICON Cinema Theaters in New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma so they are not new to the Theater business. Snell and his team have been doing behind-the-scenes prep work for a few months and are ready to start making big changes. Now that permits are in place, the true renovation work will begin, and improvements will soon be noticeable. They will be remodeling the entire facility and getting brand-new projection equipment. They plan to be open later this year.
ICON Cinemas pride themselves with providing first-class entertainment for their customers, and the Ponca City location will be no different. Seeing a movie at the ICON will be an experience. The Theater will maintain its four-screen footprint, but the upgrades will be five-star. Each Theater will have 105 luxury recliners. The first row will feature deluxe chaise lounge recliners. ICON wants to make the movie-going experience family friendly for the Ponca City community, so they will offer unlimited refills on drinks and popcorn for the duration of your movie. This will include their line of Icee products. The other refreshments on offer will include fun additions like a full ice cream bar with Dippin’ Dots ice cream. They will also be licensed to sell beer, wine and frozen daiquiris.
This project will also bring jobs to our community. ICON plans to hire a general manager, assistant managers and other staff to run the various operations. This will create around 15 year-round jobs, with even more in the summer as they hope to employ teens looking for summer jobs.
ICON Cinemas is bringing first-class entertainment to Ponca City with this new movie Theater, but it’s so much more than that. The ripple effect of this Theater will be big for Ponca City. It will create jobs. It will keep people in Ponca City and bring people from out of town to Ponca City. Studies show that when people go to a movie, they also do things like get gas, go shopping, eat dinner and wash their cars. We want them doing that in Ponca City, and this strategic partnership between PCDA and ICON Cinemas will help make that happen.
Ponca City is a thriving community and a wonderful place to live. It’s an incredible thing that we have an organization with employees that care so deeply for our community; they held onto the dream of supporting a local movie Theater for over 10 years. They waited until the perfect project came along that would have a positive economic impact for Ponca City. Then when it coincided with a local movement from the Poncan, they made the effort to support that too. They deserve unlimited refills on all their drinks and popcorn when they visit ICON Cinemas. Oh, wait …
For more information, visit ICON Cinemas website at www.iconcinemas.com to check for updates about the Ponca City location. Contact information for the Theater will be listed there as soon as it’s available.
Ironically, around the same time PCDA signed the contract with ICON Cinemas, our beloved Poncan Theatre announced they had received partial funding from the Renfro Family Foundation to purchase state-of-the-art equipment and would begin showing first-run movies again. A key value of PCDA is building community, so they knew they wanted to support the Poncan Theatre in their venture. After some back-and-forth discussions about what would be best for the Theater, PCDA gave them a retention bonus to help them cover the cost of the equipment. The Theater can continue to showcase children’s Theater with the Evans Children’s Academy, show first-run movies and not have to worry about continuing to fundraise to pay off the expensive equipment.
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