Salisbury Mall Cinemas operator says equipment was his

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 11, 2013

The man who operated Salisbury Mall Cinemas for 10 years until it closed last month is challenging reports that he removed more equipment from the theater than was his.
Daniel Kleeberg of High Point says he might have continued running the $2.50 theater if the owner at the time, New York-based Namdar Realty Group, had fixed sewage problems that began to plague the building in early July.
“People started calling us ‘Sewage Cinemas,’ ” Kleeberg said in a phone interview Tuesday. “… I just don’t feel like I was treated fairly.”
The cinema building and land are part of the mall property Rowan County commissioners voted Monday to buy in a deal totaling $3.425 million.
County Manager Gary Page said last week that Kleeberg had an agreement with the owner that he could remove the theater’s seating when the lease ran out, but Kleeberg removed much more.
Kleeberg, who operates four other cinemas in the Piedmont, says all the things he removed in Salisbury were items he bought for the business.
“The two $7,200 popcorn machines were paid for by me,” he said. The $3,600 ice machine was paid for by me. The stereo units that were removed were mine and had been upgraded and replaced by me. The seats were mine and I removed them.”
Between the sewage problem and the movie industry’s pending move away from 35mm film, Kleeberg says he saw no reason to continue operating the business in Salisbury. Updating to digital equipment would cost $300,000 per projector, he said.
Page said Tuesday afternoon that everything Kleeberg said was true. County officials had trouble getting a copy of the cinema lease during their due diligence period and at first did not understand the full scope of Kleeberg’s investment.
Information Namdar posted online about the mall property said the cinema was paying $6,000 a month, or $72,000 a year, to lease the building, which the Post reported last week. But Kleeberg said he was paying only $2,500 a month.
Once commissioners realized the information they had about some of the leases at the mall was not up to date, they delayed the closing from Nov. 26 until Dec. 16.
Page said Namdar “cut all kinds of deals” on mall leases once JCPenney and Belk moved out.
County officials didn’t think Namdar did a very good job of holding on to the cinema lease, Page said. When the sewer line to the building broke, Namdar had the building hook onto another neighboring line instead of fix the broken line. The stopgap measure was not sufficient to deal with the summer’s heavy rains, Page said, and sewage backed up into the cinema bathrooms.
Page said Don Bringle, the county’s director of facilities, buildings and grounds, helped conduct the county’s due diligence. Steven Keel, the mall manager for many years, will stay on in that position after the county closes on the purchase next Tuesday. He will become a county employee.