Cinemat up for sale

Steve Volan, owner of The Cinemat, has a movie complex. Literally.\nDespite his love for movies, Volan does not have enough time to keep running The Cinemat, 123 S. Walnut St., and he put it up for sale July 20. \n“I am probably one of the least uniquely unqualified people to run the place,” Volan said. “Mostly because I haven’t been willing to work the store to be there full time.”\nThe Cinemat is a five-year-old independent video-rental store that has approximately 5,000 rental titles, 80 percent of which are DVDs. The store also includes a screening room that can hold up to 100 patrons and has a permit to sell beer, according to a press release.\nThe Cinemat is not a huge box office success, and Volan has struggled to make business, he said. He knows there is someone out there who would probably do a better job \nthan him.\n“I’ve got at least two other jobs that I do in addition to the store,” he said. “It’s time for me to find somebody else.”\nVolan currently works on the Bloomington City Council and teaches an eight-week course at IU.\nSince the store went on sale, Volan has been approached by several people about buying The Cinemat, but he said the question is not “‘Does somebody just want to buy it?’ but, ‘What will they do to the store when it is bought?’”\n“Will (the store) break out into parts? There are a lot of possibilities.” Volan said. “I’m hoping to find someone who wants to run the store as is.”\nIn 2001, a video and music store on the square closed down after 15 years. Volan heard it was closing down and asked the owner to see his books. When the owner had given up hope that somebody wanted to buy it, Volan said he could make something of the store. Unfortunately, Volan could not come to an agreement with the owner.\n“For the moment, I thought, ‘too bad.’” he said. “About a year later, it was still a good idea, and I found the right space for it.”\nThe Cinemat opened in August 2002. \nDave Pruett, marketing director of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater said he owns Cinephile Film Arts, a non-profit arts group that supports filmmakers. Pruett explained that he always used the Cinemat for his film screenings. \n“Steve and the Cinemat have always been nice enough to let us use the space and not charge us anything for it,” Pruett said.\nHe said once the store is sold, it is likely that he won’t be able to use the screening room as much.\nDespite the difficulty of running a business, Pruett said he feels Volan has done an incredible job running The Cinemat, especially because Volan works two other jobs.\n“The problem is that the screening room is something that he has to pay rent on,” Pruett said, “and it’s really hard to re-coop the money from spending to keep the room going.”\nPruett said there’s a likelihood that The Cinemat might close altogether. \n“If it goes away, it will be a major loss. You don’t find too many towns with a screening room available to the public,” he said. “I hope someone is able to step up and take the burden off Steve and keep it around.”\nSince the initial opening of the store, the video collection has grown tremendously, and he’s managed to make the store more efficient, Volan said. Despite the struggle with the business, the problem has not been with video collection.\n“The video has always pulled its weight,” he said. “The movie-screening business is really hard.”\nVolan explained that he always felt there needed to be something to complement the videos, so he put together a movie theater in the back of The Cinemat. He said there was a lot of built-in expense for the movie screening that required a lot of leg work. He said he had to put up fliers to get people to come out to see the movies. \nVolan said he always wanted to expand his business to a Web development project. Unfortunately, he never had the time and he knows it will be \nhard work.\n“For someone who never wanted to own their own business, this is a pretty good opportunity,” he said.\nVolan explained that as much as he loves movies, he loves Bloomington even more. He said he had a great opportunity to serve Bloomington.\n“I know I’m holding the store back,” he said. “I’d rather not see the store go away. (But) a more organized and focused owner can take the \nstore somewhere.”