BOISE, Idaho — The Boise Antique World Mall was forced to close after a neighboring business, the old Reel Theater, collapsed late last month.
The collapse is having a greater impact on some of the vendors who have not been able to use the location.
Eldon Sorenson is the business manager for Casper Management, the company that owns and operates the Reel Theaters. He says they had to close that location at the end of last year due to the ramifications from the pandemic.
"The root cause was, film companies provide for brick and mortar theaters, like we have, what's called an exclusive release window," Sorensen said. "And that means brick and mortar theaters are able to exclusively show new releases. That particular window of time, prior to COVID was like 90 days, and then post COVID they changed that to like 30 to 45 days."
Sorensen says theaters, like the country club location, depended on that window of time for profits, and when it was reduced it damaged their business model. He said it was that reduction that led to the decision to close.
Seven months later, the roof of the building collapsed. Casper Management however does not own the building; the actual owners are located in Portland.
In a Facebook post, the Antique World Mall said their building was not damaged in the collapse, but that they would remain closed temporarily for safety reasons.
"They're hoping to be back up and running, you know, within two to three weeks," Sean Jennings, a vendor at the Antique World Mall said.
The antique mall said they are still waiting for power to be restored so the public can safely occupy the building again, but that's having an effect on vendors who rely on the business.
"It's a bummer, you know, for myself not to be able to go in and see what else other people have found, you know, on their travels and, and also, you know, sell a couple of my things," Jennings said. "A lot of people in our community that do have or rely, you know, on this, and it's their, full-time business, I think it affects our whole community. But at the same time, I think it'll come back stronger."
KTVB reached out to the property owner, as well as the Antique World Mall for an interview, but did not hear back as of Wednesday afternoon.
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist: