Anchorage Daily News

IMAX, anyone?

In addition to a Target and several other stores new to the Anchorage retail scene, a new mega-mall rising out of the gravel in Muldoon will offer up the state's first IMAX theater and possibly a new hotel.

Regal Entertainment Group plans to build a 17-screen cinema -- including an IMAX theater for screening wide-format films -- at the Tikahtnu Commons Mall, said Sophie Minich, the chief operating officer of Cook Inlet Region Inc., which is developing the new mall.

Minich gave an update on the mall construction, happening on CIRI's 95-acre tract that abuts the Glenn Highway, and other CIRI developments around town at an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday.

The Anchorage regional Native corporation used to generate buzz in the business world for glitzy Lower 48 deals in real estate and telecommunications. But lately, some of CIRI's biggest investments have been in Anchorage.

Recent CIRI projects include the mall and a multimillion-dollar wind farm on Fire Island, which could begin construction next year or in 2010, company officials said. The first phase involves 24 wind turbines. CIRI estimates that its wind project, off the shores of Southwest Anchorage, eventually could generate electricity for up to 35,000 homes in the Anchorage area.

The Legislature this year appropriated $25 million to help the wind farm get started.

A NEW HOTEL?

CIRI has already identified a handful of large stores that will anchor the mall, including Target, which will open in October, and four others that will probably open next year: Kohl's, Best Buy, Sports Authority and Lowe's.

Planning for a hotel at the mall is still tentative. CIRI wants to put a hotel there but has not decided whether to open it under its own tourism brand -- CIRI Alaska Tourism, which has tourism lodges in Talkeetna and the Seward area -- or ink a deal with another hotel operator, said Jim Jager, a CIRI spokesman.

CIRI will announce other stores that will join the Muldoon mall within the next couple of weeks, Minich said.

A NEW GROCERY STORE?

The Chamber audience started buzzing when Minich made a quick remark about the future prospects for CIRI's vacant commercial properties in South Anchorage, near the intersection of C Street and O'Malley Road.

"I can't reveal all of our plans but I'm looking forward to having some interesting new grocery options along with other new shopping and dining options along the C Street expansion," she said.

Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

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