A bit of surprising news from the Northgate folks today: the one-year old stadium seating cinemas is changing management. Phoenix Theaters, a Tennessee-based outfit that had been brought in when West Virginia's Marquee Cinemas folded on the project effective, well -- effective today.

In its place comes East Coast Entertainment, which looks to be a rather new outfit; the LLC shell company for the Sandhills-based venture was incorporated just last week. The managing partner, Brian McCall, is apparently no stranger to cinemas, though, having started at Marquee before All Star Entertainment, which managed a half-dozen theaters across West Virginia and North Carolina. From what I can tell, All Star Cinemas very recently merged with Frank Theatres, a New Jersey-based theater operator. Now it appears McCall is on to new ventures and adventures, starting here in the Bull City.

So why's the news surprising? Ownership changes happen from time to time, but what seems distinctive on this one is the brevity of notice, at least to the public. Duke University's HR arm put out a note to employees who had purchased Phoenix 10 tickets this afternoon noting that the operational management was changing effective today, and that passes would no longer be available for sale through Duke. At the same time, Northgate's web site has changed sometime in the past 24-72 hours, as best as I can tell, with a press release announcing the change.

So, it's a bit of a mystery as to why there wasn't more notice about the changeover. A call to Phoenix Theaters' HQ discovered that the operational manager was out of town through the end of the week and wouldn't be available to comment until early next week. McCall was also not available this late in the day for comment. 

(If I had to speculate, it would be to wonder whether Phoenix's arrangement had ever been permanent, or whether Northgate was continuing to own the theater and to use Phoenix just as an operator, until they could find a more permanent O&O arrangement for the facility. Given that Phoenix has a number of mall space-conversion theater projects on its books, it may not be the craziest idea. More on the reasons why as they become available.)

Personally, I was always pretty happy with the quality of the work Phoenix did with the cinemas, though they did look noticeably dirtier on our last visit there in June. On the plus side, McCall apparently has an interest in bringing digital entertainment like concert and sporting events to the theater, along with revitalized concessions.

Update: No one's wasting time on this changeover. All the Phoenix signage has been removed from the old Belk's building that houses the theater on Northgate's east side. This morning, a cleaning crew is hard at work in the theater, washing down the lobby and potentially performing other maintenance to the facility. The theater's phone line continues to list Phoenix Theatres showtimes through Thursday; no word as to whether there'll actually be any interruption in showings.