Movie theater lawsuit settled

Now that the long-running dispute over property adjacent to the proposed Sun Basin Theatres complex is settled, the city expects to see another development proposal but hasn't so far, Capital Projects Manager Frank Needham said Monday.

Now that the long-running dispute over property adjacent to the proposed Sun Basin Theatres complex is settled, the city expects to see another development proposal but hasn’t so far, Capital Projects Manager Frank Needham said Monday.

The two sides in the dispute, property owner Ruth McCord and developers Phil and Linda Lassila and Wenatchee Production Corp., filed March 12 in Clallam County Superior Court to have their lawsuit dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can’t be refiled.

The order was signed March 13 by Court Commissioner Brent Basden.

The Sun Basin Theatres multiplex was expected to be built by the close of 2006 near the intersection of Rhodefer Road and East Washington Street.

Sun Basin also owns the Deer Park and Lincoln theaters in Port Angeles.

The $6 million-plus, 30,000-square-foot multiplex was supposed to have 10 screens and 1,200 seats plus a party room.

Lassila, Sun Basin Theaters’ president and owner, opened his first theater in 1971 in Port Angeles. Then in 1976, he bought Liberty Cinemas and Vue Dale Drive In in Wenatchee.

In 1999, Sun Basin bought Columbia Cinemas, a Yakima-based company that had opened East Wenatchee’s Columbia Cinemas in 1977.

Reach Brian Gawley at bgawley@sequimgazette.com.