Former AMC Execs Offer Dinner-And-Movie Concept In Prairie Village

By Steve Vockrodt
Former AMC Entertainment Inc. executives have signed a lease at The Village Shopping Center in Prairie Village to open a combined dining and movie theater concept.
Dineplex International LLC, a Kansas City-based company whose president is a former AMC senior vice president, agreed to lease 14,000 square feet from Lane4 Property Group Inc. at the shopping center near Mission Road and 71st Street.
Dineplex will open Standees, an adult-oriented upscale-casual restaurant that also will include three movie theaters with a combined 250 seats.
Dineplex is one of Grassmere Partners’ portfolio companies, a private investment firm founded by former AMC CEO Peter Brown.
Standees will feature a 200-seat restaurant with what Dineplex President Frank Rash described as a chef-infused upscale-causal American menu.
The theaters have about 80 seats apiece and will feature films that appeal to adults, such as “Moneyball,” independent films and alternate content such as live concert broadcasts.
Rash said the combined theater and restaurant concept did not equate to dine-in theater.
Although visitors can have drinks and appetizers with them in the theater, they cannot order meals in the theater.
“It’s not a product we feel exists today,” Rash said.
Both concepts will stand on their own with the ideal customers eating a meal at the restaurant and then catching a movie, Rash said.
The target audience for Standees are adults 40 and older.
“It’s not a family location,” Rash said. “It’s an adult night out.”
Standees is expected to open in the spring and will employ 25 to 35 workers.
It will begin going through city approvals soon, and Rash said no public assistance would be requested.
Rash declined to comment on the level of investment for the flagship Standees location.
He said Dineplex expects to add more in the Kansas City area before branching out into the region.