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There are 16 new movie theaters about to open in the South Loop on the north side of Roosevelt, just west of Clark. It’s been a long time coming. We have been sort of theaterless in the South Loop since we lost our Fine Arts Theater on the 400 block of South Michigan Avenue (to bureaucracy and finances at Roosevelt U./Auditorium Theater) and our Burnham Theater (to office space development on the 800 block of South Wabash).

And these theaters are going to be nice. With “stadium” seating. And good food--a la Jerry Kleiner (Opera, Gioco and Marche, for starters). And booze. And they will have roped off over-21 adult sections in which to drink the booze.

That’s what Dean Kerasotes--whose movie theater business family, now in its third generation in the entertainment business all over Illinois for well over 100 years--told attendees Friday at the annual meeting of the Near South Planning Board at the Hilton.

The 16 theaters are going to be under one roof at the new Roosevelt Collection complex of condos (now rental) and retail (as yet unspoken for). It will open in December and debut along with the 3D movie Avatar, starring Sigourney Weaver and Sam Worthington, running 166 minutes. Thank goodness for the adult section that serves booze.

But one of my tablemates at the annual meeting, a parent from the South Loop School, had a lot of questions after we finished our delicious little filets, salad with a dollop of brie, herb roasted potatoes--and an array of sautéed veggies. Like why doesn’t it seem like it’s going to be very kid-friendly, what with the adult sections and booze and all?

I figure if you have to segregate the adults and give them liquor, the kids are going to rule the day, right?

She also wondered where to park. Are Wells Street and LaSalle Street, down there where the Metra and Amtrak trains are in back of Target going to be accessible to cars and the Roosevelt Collection parking lots? I reminded my pal that since we live in the neighborhood, we can walk. A light bulb went off and she seemed satisfied.

Then I realized I had no idea how to get into the complex--by foot. The most logical way for me would be to walk right in off the Roosevelt Road bridge. But can you? Since the buildings are still in various stages of construction, there doesn’t seem to be any clearcut way to enter from that direction and actually be somewhere. "Will you be able to just walk in off Roosevelt?" I asked my friend and neighbor and South Loop Neighbors president Dennis McClendon.

“Yes,” he said, in his usual tsk-tsk way. “If you can walk up three steps, you’ll be able to. And the theaters will be right there.”

I’ve been looking at the construction of the long time unfinished complex for a long time and always tried to spot long, open and slanted floors signaling the planned-for theaters, all 16 of them. But never saw anything like that at all as I passed the gargantuan metal frame. Would the theaters be way down in the “basement” (actually street level once you realize the Roosevelt Road bridge isn’t grade)?

Nope. They’re to be on the second level from the bridge, said Dennis, who seemed to fully understand the layout. And the reason I never saw the slanted floors is because they build up stadium seating after the building goes under roof, a couple of tablemates and I surmised as we nodded our heads and took it all in while Dennis explained. That way, if the theaters don’t work out, they can easily rip them out and have flat floors for something else, I speculated. Like big box stores? Banquet halls? Bowling alleys? Whatever a neighborhood needs.

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