It’s coming down to the wire for Jerry Snyder’s Howard Hughes Promenade.

The 250,000-square-foot retail and entertainment center in Westchester is scheduled to open in February, but the developer has yet to land the anchor tenant, a movie multiplex operator.

And that presents a potential nightmare for one of the most successful developers in California, since a number of the other high-profile tenants in the $50 million project have inked leases contingent on the signing of a multiplex to generate foot traffic.

In light of that, you might think Snyder would be rushing to make a deal. Instead, he says he’s in no hurry and plans to take his time finding a theater operator that has the resources to sign a long-term lease and help cover construction costs.

He has no intention of entering into any deal that would require him to take on too much risk at a time when the theater industry is in the midst of a turbulent shakeout.

“We’re not doing those kinds of deals,” said Snyder, who saw a previous agreement with Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc. fall through when that chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year. “That’s what some developers who need a theater are doing. I’m in no hurry. We’re under no pressure to make a deal. Everybody wants to be (at the Promenade).”

Such bravado, of course, could ultimately backfire if no theater operator steps forward. Snyder’s project must have a theater tenant to retain Nordstrom’s Rack, Islands restaurant and the other tenants that have already signed leases, industry observers said.

“That project really needs the theater in order for it to go forward,” said Ian Strano, senior vice president at First Property Realty Corp. “I’m sure the restaurants over there will do well with the office tenants (at Howard Hughes Center), but they’re going to rely on pedestrian traffic from theaters. They make their money from evening dinners and weekends.”

Some retail experts shied away from second-guessing a veteran developer like Snyder. They view the Promenade as a well-positioned project that, unlike many malls that have lost theater anchors, is in strong demand by retail tenants. If Snyder is indeed playing a game of chicken with theater companies, as his attitude and actions suggest, it just might be the theater company that caves in first.

“I would not underestimate Jerry Snyder’s ability to put in a good theater at a good rent at that location, notwithstanding where the industry is at,” said broker George Garvin, a vice president at Grubb & Ellis Co. who brokers retail property transactions. “The discussions he must be having now are probably intense and with the entire industry.”

Deal called imminent

Indeed, most industry observers interviewed seem to be betting on Snyder. As a developer who builds and sells major projects (most recently, the Water Garden II in Santa Monica), Snyder will have his eye on a theater deal that he can take to the bank and that will enhance the Promenade’s value should he decide to unload that project as well.

“He’s been in these situations before and he knows how to structure the deal at this point, so the future of that property will be protected,” Strano said. “No other developer would be able to do better than what he’s doing now.”

Snyder is quick to add that he’s not far from announcing a deal with a theater company that will occupy the nearly completed theater complex, which has the stadium seating that has proven so popular in recent years, along with an IMAX auditorium.

But Snyder has said that a theater deal is imminent twice before. The first time was in August, when he rushed out a press release right after Edwards Theatres announced it was seeking bankruptcy protection.

“It took us a while to get the financially responsible theaters together,” Snyder said about his current efforts.

Indeed, the Promenade project has the misfortune of coming online just as the shakeout in the theater circuit industry has peaked. While other projects such as the Fallbrook Mall in West Hills are looking to reposition themselves now that their theaters have shut down, and others such as OliverMcMillan’s proposed Screenland in Culver City never got their theaters built, Snyder falls somewhere in the middle because the steel for his Promenade project was in the ground before the shakeout occurred.

Still, it’s a project that will almost certainly do very well in the under-served Westchester market, Garvin said.

The project is next to the San Diego (405) Freeway and Arden Realty’s Howard Hughes Center, with the nearest state-of-the-art movie theaters in Torrance. Now that AMC Entertainment Inc. has pulled out of a project in Culver City, the nearest theaters slated to come online anytime soon are in Hollywood and the Fairfax District.

As a result, Garvin believes that any theater circuit with the financial strength to expand really should jump at the chance to enter the Promenade.

“Jerry Snyder’s (financial) hand is stronger than one might think,” Garvin said. “It’s very, very hard to get a project of that quality and location entitled. I think it’s very possible he’s going to be able to find (a theater chain) without having to give it away, or without having to accede to the price levels that the bottom-feeders want.”

Indeed, there’s no reason to think the projectors won’t roll, agreed Michael Pollack, who heads up leasing for Arden Realty’s neighboring Howard Hughes Center.

“It’s just too good of a location,” Pollack said. “I think whatever happens, someone will step up and take it.”

Snyder says he is resisting the kind of deals that theater circuits are demanding from developers right now: a management agreement under which the developer would cover all construction costs (even the purchase of projection equipment) and pay to have the theater managed for a flat fee.

“(That type of deal) is something that’s relatively new,” said Armando Aquirre, a retail broker at Grubb & Ellis. “Until this cycle, nobody needed to do this.”

Such a deal would put Snyder in a position that, if the theater were to lose money, it would come out of his own pocket.

That’s not the kind of arrangement that puts a developer at ease. And it’s a far cry from the recent-past deals under which aggressively expanding theater operators kicked in millions to help cover construction costs to land a spot in a project.

“The less money you can ever give a tenant, the better off you are,” said developer Rick Caruso of Caruso Affiliated Holdings. “It reduces the risk exposure.”