88 Drive-in Theatre to Reopen After Last Year's Closure Reports

The show will go on at the 88 Drive-In Theatre — at least for one more season.

The Commerce City theater will reopen for another season this spring, according to a March 25 social media announcement. The drive-in, open since 1972, was expected to shut down for good last summer after the owner revealed plans to sell the property to First Industrial Realty Trust and turn it into a warehouse.

At the time, developers said they wanted to begin construction in the spring of 2024. But now the land at 88th and Rosemary will continue to host moviegoers, prolonging the legacy of metro Denver's last drive-in movie theater.

The 88 Drive-In has not revealed a reopening date but said "it's almost time" in the announcement. It is unclear whether this will be the theater's last season; representatives of 88 Drive-In, First Industrial Realty Trust and the Commerce City government did not immediately respond to inquiries about the future of the theater.

Susan Kochevar, who ran the drive-in, wanted to sell it to "step away" from the movie theater business, Commerce City officials said last summer. Her family had owned the 88 Drive-In since 1976.

"Our family grieves the loss of the drive-in, but it is what is best for us and for the community," Kochevar told Westword in June. "This decision was not made lightly and was a joint decision of the family. We are not a big, greedy corporation. We are one small family with a family-run business. ...We feel the land is at its highest and best use for the community in the re-development plan the buyer has created."

The lot at 8780 Rosemary Street had been under contract since late 2021 with First Industrial Realty Trust, Kochevar said. The company had asked the city to rezone the property in 2023, proposing the construction of an 80,500-square-foot warehouse for three to four businesses.

The Commerce City Planning Commission advanced the rezoning proposal on May 16, 2023, but the City Council later delayed the full-council vote to July 17. However, the rezoning proposal was not brought up during the July 17 meeting, according to the meeting minutes.

The proposal has not reappeared on a council agenda as of March 26, based on a search of Commerce City Council's hearing calendar.

Kochevar has said the property needed a lot of work, including a new $100,000 screen — expenses she said would leave her "bled dry." She also claimed the increasing amount of traffic in the area brought too much noise and the warehouses surrounding the drive-in caused light pollution, "diluting the movies’ quality." Kochevar could not be immediately reached for comment.

The 88 Drive-In continued operating through November 2023, even after reports speculated the theater would permanently close that summer. When announcing its final movie lineup of last year, a Facebook post from the theater said, "This will be our Final weekend of THIS season!! We’ll be back in the Spring!" But the post was quickly edited to remove the sentence claiming the theater would reopen in the spring.

For now, the 88 Drive-In's future is as uncertain as it was last year. But it appears there's still time to catch a movie or two.

"We do not know when our last night will be," Kochevar told Westword in June. "In the meantime, come on out and enjoy some movies under the stars and make some lasting memories."