National Amusements plans to leave its longtime headquarters on Elm Street in Dedham next month for a temporary home in Norwood.
As demolition crews began razing the company's Showcase Cinemas complex off Providence Highway next to the corporate headquarters, a spokeswoman for the cinema chain confirmed the move.
National Amusements bought a 65,000-square-foot office building at 846 University Ave. in Norwood in 2006 to serve as a temporary headquarters. The company needs to relocate while its old office and theater in Dedham are demolished to make way for Legacy Place, a new upscale shopping center, cinema and corporate office.
The company had not previously confirmed a move date for its corporate offices, where more than 200 people work. But company officials had initially expected to be done with Legacy Place by the end of this year.
Wanda Whitson, a spokeswoman for National Amusements, said the company now expects that the $200 million, 675,000-square-foot project will largely be completed by the summer of 2009, although a 15-screen Cinema De Lux that will replace the old Showcase Cinemas complex will be done by December 2009.
The demolition of the 12-screen Showcase Cinemas complex, which was built in 1973, will take about two weeks.
A new, 85,000-square-foot corporate office will take 18 months to two years to build at the Legacy Place site, Whitson said.
The company - which runs movie theaters under the Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas and Cinema De Lux brands - will temporarily move its corporate offices to a building that has been vacant since New York Life left it about three years ago.
National Amusements is working with W/S Development of Newton to develop Legacy Place, and company officials say at least 90 percent of the shopping center has been leased already.
