SIKESTON, Mo. -- Extra seating was brought in to council chambers at city hall to accommodate citizens attending the public hearing for a proposed theater project. It remains to be seen if Sikeston will ever see more theater seats brought in.

The public hearing on the proposal to establish a Community Improvement District in the Midtowner Village shopping center was held during the regular Sikeston City Council meeting Monday.

Bob Horn of Central Realty in St. Louis said Sikeston city officials approached his company about three years ago to see if the property owners, Malco Theaters and the city could work together to rejuvenate the Malco Trio.

Central Realty bought the shopping center about four and a half years ago "because we felt it was a viable opportunity," Horn said.

The plan is for a "three-part investment," he said, in which a one-cent tax within the shopping center to help fund improvements to the theater building and parking lot would be combined with investments by the property owners and Malco.

Action on the renovation project was stalled, however, by the economy.

Now that the property owners and Malco Theaters have reached a 20-year lease agreement and are ready to proceed, the city council is hearing vehement opposition from merchants within the proposed district and other citizens.

Horn said the project is "probably the only avenue we have to accomplish" modernizing the shopping center with lighting, benches and landscaping. "The whole center would be cleaned up," he said.

While the additional tax would be in effect for all the merchants within the district, "they'll gain more business from the synergy of it," Horn said.

John McMillen argued that it would be "unfair" to impose the one-cent tax on the customers of those businesses in the proposed district because, unlike other CIDs approved in the city, those businesses are already there. He described them as "captive merchants" upon which government would put a tax on with no vote in the matter.

One woman said she "couldn't find anyone who wanted it to happen" among the merchants in the shopping center or their employees.

Harry Sharp said if the property owners were to do the project on their own, they would have to raise the rent on their tenants who would then have to charge higher prices.

"Either way, prices are going to be higher than they were before," he said. "It's all market-driven."

Ron Watkins, president of Food Giant, proposed a citywide tax rather than the CID to fund a theater project.

"If everybody wants it, everybody pays," he said.

"I'm not here to sell you Malco," said Jimmy Tashie, executive vice president of Malco Theaters, "but we can't afford to do it on our own."

Tashie explained that it isn't feasible for his company to come in and build a new theater.

"We don't build anything less than 16 screens," he said, adding that the theater business requires "variety and selection."

The cost to build a theater is $150 per square foot plus $100,000 per screen, according to Tashie.

By the time a theater company buys five acres, erects a $2.5 million building and puts in movie screens it has invested $4 million to $6 million, Tashie said. It then costs the company about 10 percent of the initial investment annually in overhead to operate that theater. Tashie said his company has never put a new 16-screen theater in any city with a population under 40,000.

"Sikeston has not grown; it is losing population," he said.

The proposed project would double the screens from three to six in addition to modernizing the theater. And according to some, it may be Sikeston's best chance for a modern theater.

"If anybody was interested in Sikeston, they would have been here by now," Tashie said.

Malco is interested in revamping the theater to the current industry standards, including stadium seating, for "better sight, better sound," Tashie said. "My life is about bringing entertainment to communities."

He said the Malco Theaters has been a family business for 95 years. The Malco Trio was built in the 1960s.

"I'm not here to defend our Malco Theater in Sikeston. It's a dump," Tashie said. "The theater as you see it today is a terrible embarrassment."

The theater chain's other locations are "are all state-of-the art facilities," he said.

Tashie showed renderings of what a renovated theater would look like.

"Our investment in this project would be $1.2 million," he said, adding the property owners would be putting in $1.6 million.

Councilman Bob Depro asked Tashie if Malco would take measures to prevent a renovated theater from degenerating.

"Our investment demands that," Tashie said. "We're rolling the dice for over $1 million. ... You don't have to worry about upkeep on this theater."

Tashie promised that if the project is approved, "you will have something you will be proud of for a long time."