More than $350,000 in upgrades are wrapping up at the nearly 70-year-old Garland Theater in North Spokane that include new auditorium seats, a digital film projector, and other improvements throughout the building, says owner Katherine Fritchie.

The venue shows what are called second-run movies, which are films that previously debuted at larger theaters in recent months, and Fritchie says the theater will continue to show movies at its previous $4.50-per-ticket rate.

Other upgrades at the Garland Theater, which is located at 924 W. Garland, include new carpeting, a new roof, and installation of a small kitchen near the concessions area for expanding its menu selections, Fritchie says.

"We're planning to have the grand reopening Nov. 8 to Nov. 11," she says.

While the venue will continue to cater to families with children for matinees, Fritchie says the theater plans by next month to offer dinner-type menu items and limited alcohol service in the evenings. As part of that move, the business is seeking a liquor license to enable it to sell glasses of wine or beer to adults attending evening movies.

Fritchie also owns an adjacent 35-seat bar, named Bon Bon, that has a separate entrance but is considered part of the roughly 10,000-square-foot theater building. If the liquor license is approved, she says an interior access would be built between the theater and the bar, so that adults could buy the beer or wine from Bon Bon and take the beverages into the theater.

"A bill passed in Olympia recently to allow theaters to sell beer and wine," Fritchie says. "We're in the process of applying for our liquor license so that guests can come and watch a movie and have a glass of wine or beer. We hope to have approval by our grand opening."

She says the theater employs 10 people, mostly part time, and Bon Bon has five employees.

Fritchie says the first step among several improvements at the Garland included replacing its 35 mm film projector in May with a digital projector because the movie industry is expected to end 35 mm film production and distribution later this year.

"We're working on upgrading the sound system right now and also to upgrade the screen so we can display 3-D movies," she adds.

For the auditorium, she says the theater closed from Sept. 27 to Oct. 4 to install new seating designed to be more comfortable and to meet requirements for providing access to people in wheelchairs. When the theater originally opened in 1945 it had nearly 1,000 seats, she says, but it had closer to just over 600 seats when Fritchie bought the theater business in 1999. She purchased the theater property in 2002.

Fritchie says that with the recent upgrades, the theater now has roughly 565 seats, because some rows of chairs were removed to gain width between aisles and to provide the wheelchair-only access area. The auditorium chairs also are wider and more comfortable, she adds.

With the other recent upgrades, the business also plans to offer more concession foods, such as nachos and hot dogs with a number of healthy toppings as a dinner option, she adds.

The new kitchen occupies just over 100 square feet of floor space but enables employees to prepare the new menu items. It was built in an area previously used for storage behind the concessions on the south side of the building.

She says the business recently hired Spokane-area chef Josh Martin, who teaches culinary arts at Spokane Community College, as a consultant to develop a simple dinner menu.

"We're starting with a simple menu so we can work out the kinks," Fritchie adds. "It's a basic menu, because people who come to theater want their food right away. We're not planning on raising our prices at all."

She adds that the theater still will offer traditional concession items such as candy and popcorn.