Plan to Replace 88 Drive-In Theatre With Warehouse Was Pulled Last Summer

The last drive-in movie theater in metro Denver will not be replaced with a warehouse, after all.

The 88 Drive-In Theatre in Commerce City was expected to close for good last summer after a proposal was submitted to rezone the property for industrial use. The theater's owner planned to sell the property to First Industrial Realty Trust, which intended to construct an 80,500-square-foot warehouse on the land where the drive-in has operated since 1972.

But the rezoning application was withdrawn and no other applications are active for the property at 88th Avenue and Rosemary Street, according to Commerce City spokesperson Travis Huntington. First Industrial Realty Trust withdrew the application before the city could hold a final vote on the rezoning, he says.

The company is "not involved in that property anymore" and has no plans to purchase it "in the near term," says John Strabel, regional director of First Industrial Realty Trust. He declined to provide details about why the purchase did not go through.

“As far as the city is concerned, none of the land use and entitlements have changed," Huntington says. "[The theater] opening or not opening is entirely up to them.”

The 88 Drive-In announced on March 25 that it will open for another season this spring, countering reports last summer that the theater would shut down permanently. The theater has not revealed a reopening date but said "it's almost time" in posts on social media.

The theater's owner, Susan Kochevar, told Westword in June that the lot at 8780 Rosemary Street had been under contract with First Industrial Realty Trust since late 2021. Kochevar's LLC is still listed as the property's owner in city and county records.

Kochevar and other representatives of the 88 Drive-In did not respond to requests for comment.

Kochevar wanted to sell the drive-in to "step away" from the movie theater business, Commerce City officials said last summer. Her family has 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 feel the land is at its highest and best use for the community in the re-development plan the buyer has created."

The Commerce City Planning Commission advanced the rezoning proposal for the property on May 16, 2023, but the City Council later delayed the full-council vote to July 17. First Industrial Realty Trust withdrew the proposal before the July 17 meeting, Huntington says.

While it appears the property will continue hosting an operational drive-in movie theater for now, the future of the 88 Drive-In is not certain. Kochevar previously gave many reasons for wanting to shut it down.

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."

The drive-in will operate for at least one more season, however. And fans are happy to take a victory lap.

The 88 Drive-In's posts announcing its return this spring are filled with over 100 comments from moviegoers celebrating the return of metro Denver's last surviving drive-in movie theater, no matter how long it lasts.

"I'm just glad y'all held on for one more round!!!" the top comment reads.