Coming attraction: Riverbank businesses urged to build on Imax coming to town

Galaxy Theatres saw an attractive market in Riverbank that led it to open a 12-screen cineplex here in 2000, upgrade to its Luxury-plus format last year and now build a 440-seat Imax theater.

President and CEO Frank Rimkus gave a pep talk of sorts to a Chamber of Commerce audience gathered at the Patterson Road business Wednesday morning. He urged business leaders to take advantage of the same factors that attracted Galaxy and to build on the success the theater has had.

The chain bucked conventional wisdom by opening a theater in a town of little more than 20,000 people, Rimkus said.

But “Galaxy has a way of looking at things differently,” he told Wednesday’s audience.

Building the theater outside of Modesto, the hub of Stanislaus County? It was craziness, Galaxy execs heard.

“You guys will never make it” was the general thought, Rimkus recalled.

But Riverbank was attractive in great part because of the road system.

“A lot of major arteries go through Riverbank,” he said. “It’s a nexus for transportation.”

The regional market includes more than a half-million people, he said; 380,000 live within a 10-mile radius of the theater.

He also said Riverbank appears to have a stable economy. Everyone suffered in the 2007-08 downturn, he said, “but you went through it, not down with it.”

Galaxy’s faith in that economy is such that “we’re sitting on a $15 million investment,” Rimkus said. “When Imax is in, $20 million.”

Since opening 15 years ago, Galaxy has seen an average of 400,000 people a year visiting Riverbank to see movies, Rimkus said. For 2015, the company projected a 159 percent increase in attendance. By the end of August, it was at 167 percent.

“That’s without Imax,” he told the audience. “What do you think is going to happen with people visiting Riverbank with Imax in your town?”

Rimkus urged businesspeople to make “consumer travel habits” work for them. People like to combine trips. He told of a conversation he had with a moviegoer who came from Valley Home and said she used her trip to Riverbank to see a movie, do some food and retail shopping, and have her car worked on.

He also cited research that shows about 60 percent of people who go to a movie want to have a meal out, either before or after the show. So, in terms of businesses that could complement, and benefit from, the Galaxy Imax, dining establishments quickly come to mind, Rimkus said. Other forms of entertainment centers – a bowling alley, a big penny-arcade type of place, a driving range – are worth exploring, he said.

“If we didn’t have a drought,” Rimkus said, “the first thing I’d suggest is a water park.”

High on his personal wish list for Riverbank, he said, is a hotel.

I really want to stay in the town we have a business in, but I can’t do that,” he said. When he came to town for this visit, he found hotel occupancy so high in the greater Modesto area that he went through five before finding a room – all the way down at Briggsmore Avenue near Highway 99, he recalled.

Rimkus also made a pitch to have local businesses advertise on Galaxy’s screens, but added that they also should promote their own businesses through social media, using proximity to the theater as a selling point. A nearby carwash has seen its business grow 12 percent, a chamber official said.

“All we are is a free tool,” Rimkus said. “See what you can do to use it effectively.”

After Rimkus’ presentation, Riverbank Chamber of Commerce director Rich Holmer told the audience the Imax is huge for the city.

“Here’s an opportunity to develop businesses that will have the advantage of an Imax theater” being in town, he said. “Riverbank, to me, has its doors wide open and it’s between you folks to take advantage of this.”

Outside the theater, Mayor Richard O’Brien called Rimkus’ presentation “spot-on.”

He agreed that food service clearly will benefit from the Imax addition. Pointing across Patterson Road from Galaxy, he noted an area ripe for developing businesses that would complement the theater.

“Shopping is going to increase,” he said.

“A lot of businesses can use Galaxy as a growth mechanism even during times of downturn,” he added, because people always need entertainment outlets.

As for a hotel, O’Brien said, Riverbank wants one.

“However, if you take a look at Oakdale’s occupancy rate, it’s not overwhelming.”

He said it would be better to first draw businesses that would in turn attract visitors, creating greater demand for lodging.

“The city is working on bringing in groups that will complete Riverbank as a destination,” the mayor said.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Coming attraction: Riverbank businesses urged to build on Imax coming to town."