This time, there’s no Hollywood ending

Published 11:41 pm Sunday, April 11, 2010

EVERETT — The mammoth movie screen at Puget Park Drive-In won’t be demolished next week when construction begins on a new standalone emergency room near the intersection of I-5 and 128th Street SE.

The reprieve is only temporary, however. Plans call for the screen at the county’s last drive-in theater to be torn down, but there’s no timetable for when that will happen.

Meanwhile, nostalgia over the drive-in, a longtime I-5 landmark, continues to grow. Three Facebook pages have sprung up. Some fans still plead for the drive-in to be saved while others mourn its impending demise.

One, called Keep Puget Park Drive-in OPEN!, has more than 7,300 members. Posts include pictures of the concession stand, movie ticket stubs and remembrances of having summer jobs or watching movies there.

Bobbi Reyes, who managed the drive-in with her husband, Valentin Reyes, lives nearby and toured the property last week.

“It’s sad,” she said. “They’re slowly gutting it out.”

In January, Seattle-based Swedish Health Services announced that it would open a new satellite emergency room on the site, part of a $30 million, three-story, 86,770-square-foot medical office building.

Construction on the building, which will be called Swedish/Mill Creek, is expected to begin next week. The building will probably open during the first two months of next year, said Kevin Brown, a Swedish senior vice president.

Swedish will lease 55,000 square feet of space for clinical programs, including 18 exam rooms; advanced diagnostic imaging such as X-ray, ultrasound, CT scan and MRI; on-site laboratory services; and primary care and specialty care services.

The emergency room will be open 24 hours a day and will be able to treat up to 35,000 patients a year.

The building will be constructed near where the drive-in’s concession stand now sits.

Five acres of the 20-acre site will be used for that building, Brown said. Swedish also has purchased another 10 acres for longer-term development.

The drive-in’s screen is on the remaining 5 acres still owned by Sterling Realty Organization Co. in Bellevue. The company once operated movie theaters throughout Washington, including Puget Park and the Grand Cinemas at Alderwood.

David Schooler, SRO president, said the drive-in’s 50-foot by 100-foot screen will probably be taken down, but he doesn’t know when. “We don’t want it to become an attractive nuisance,” he said.

He plans to develop the property. “We hope to do something complementary to what (Swedish) is doing, but not right away,” he said.

Schooler said he has heard from a lot of upset people since the drive-in’s demolition was announced.

“I have to tell you there’s some emotion for us, too,” he said. “We think it was the last drive-in on I-5 in two states.”

Mark Gleason, exhibits manager for the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, said he hopes to include some memorabilia from the drive-in as part of an upcoming exhibit.

The exhibit’s themes are the way Seattle is depicted in the movies and how the way people watch movies has changed over time.

Gleason said he’d like to have one of the window speakers from the drive-in, even though Puget Park hadn’t used them in years.

Schooler, who is on the museum’s advisory board, said he has window speakers from other drive-ins, but not from Puget Park.

“I told him whatever we have, they’re welcome to look at,” Schooler said.

Bobbi Reyes, meanwhile, said she’ll be glad when demolition on the drive-in begins. There’s been scattered vandalism on the site, she said, such as handles ripped off doors.

An unusual number of people have been driving by the drive-in lately, she said.

The first weekend in April had been the traditional reopening for the swap meet, which for years also was held at the drive-in on spring and summer weekends.

Reyes said when she and her husband are out shopping, some people still recognize them as the managers of the drive-in.

“We were in Penney’s the day and some guy spotted my husband,” she said. “I didn’t know we were so famous.

“It was a great place to work,” she said, “and missed already.”

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.

On Facebook

Check out these three Facebook pages dedicated to Puget Park Drive-In:

Keep Puget Park Drive-In OPEN! http://tinyurl.com/pugetpark1.

Let Your Voice Be Heard For The Puget Park Drive-In: http://tinyurl.com/pugetpark2.

I’ll Miss the Awesome Nights at Puget Park Drive-In: http://tinyurl.com/pugetpark3.