SANDY -- Larry H. Miller has every reason to look uptight.
He's building a $107 million development that he admits doesn't look like a moneymaker on paper. It includes a theater complex at least 30 percent more expensive than comparable projects and a theme restaurant that's now 75 days behind its construction schedule and twice as expensive as planned.But as he ushers reporters around the dusty, 8-acre site at 9400 South and State Street, Miller beams.
"My wife doesn't like it when I say this, but this is my baby," he said.
Jordan Commons will celebrate its official grand opening the week of Nov. 1.
The office space and theatre complex are a month away from completion. But the Mayan, Miller's 46,000-square-foot Mexican restaurant, likely won't be finished until January 2000. Its complicated three-story structure has been designed while it's been constructed.
"It's a gamble by pure economic standards," Miller said. "I've seen how it doesn't make sense on paper right now. But it will make money. I know it will."
"At least I don't have to worry about it being replicated," he said. "No one else is stupid enough to do this."
Although the restaurant is late, the 10-story office complex at Jordan Commons is developing exactly as planned. Companies Ovid Technologies and Stampin' Up! have already bought space, and what's left is filling up fast.
"We've got three other potential tenants who are each asking for four or five floors," Miller said. "And then we're wondering if we should consolidate some of our own management to this location and take a floor."
Occupancy of the office space will begin Nov. 1 and continue until the first of the year.
The MegaPlex 17 will open to the public on Nov. 1. It will include 16 standard 35mm cinema theatres as well as one 70mm, large format theatre.
For this project, Miller has spared no expense to get the details just right.
The west entrance has been designed to look like the front of Jordan High School, the building that was demolished to make way for Jordan Commons.
"And when you get inside, this is anything but a traditional theatre lobby," Miller said. "It's 90 feet wide from north to south and will look like a park with benches, tables and lamp posts. And we'll be offering much more than typical movie theatre fare. There will be pizza, ice cream, a juice bar, pretzels and gourmet coffee."
The huge lobby, still framed with scaffolding, is starting to look like Salt Lake City's Main Street, circa 1870.
Obviously caught up in the thrill of nostalgia, Miller laughed, "Maybe we'll even start playing Flash Gordon and Roy Rogers on Saturday mornings."
But he admits the cavernous space flies in the face of business logic, which puts sellable theatre seat space at a premium.
"I've been warned that I've overbuilt this," Miller said. "I mean, this is so much more than a ticket lobby. It's a little city."
Miller hopes people will get used to coming to Jordan Commons at least 20 minutes before a movie starts to enjoy the atmosphere and get something to eat.
"If we don't change their movie-going habits, I guess I've just blown off $6-10 million (on the lobby)," he said.
In the space between the theatres and the Mayan on the west and the office building on the east, Miller will bring in four independently managed restaurants.
"We've already got Joe's Crab Shack, a restaurant out of Houston," he said.
Miller also announced that former Utah Jazz basketball star Mark Eaton will open an Italian restaurant at Jordan Commons.
"But I told Mark, we want something a little more moderately priced than his Tuscany's," Miller said.
Negotiations with two other restaurant franchises are not complete.