Former MoviE-town building sold for $2M to owners of Columbia home decor wholesaler | Local Business
The former MoviE-town building has been sold for $2 million to the owners of a Columbia-based wholesale supplier of home décor and gifts for craft stores.
The 32,000-square-foot property at 700 N. Hanover St. was sold July 7 to Kramer 700 Properties LLC, a limited-liability company whose sole member is JanMichael Kramer, an owner of JanMichael’s Art & Home.
Based in Columbia, JanMichael’s Art & Home supplies wall décor, accents and gifts to independent retailers and gift shops. It is owned by JanMichael Kramer and his wife, Holly Kramer.
Holly Kramer confirmed the sale but said JanMichael’s Art & Home is “completely unrelated” to the new business that would go in to the former movie theater, which she said would not have a retail component. She declined additional comment, saying plans would be publicized in October.
A building permit filed with Elizabethtown Borough describes renovations that would remove old movie theater platforms and take out some walls to create sales space for arts and craft goods. The permit estimated the renovations would cost $300,000.
MoviE-town shut down in March 2020 because of COVID-19 related restrictions on theaters. The next month, its owner, Room One, announced the closure was permanent.
MoviE-town first opened in 1999 when a former auto dealership on the edge of town was converted into an eight-screen theater. After the theater’s founders faced mounting debts, the complex went up on the auction block in 2013 and was bought by Room One, which had also owned Cocoaplex Cinema in Hershey, which closed in 2019. The contents of MoviEtown were sold at an auction last fall.