BLOOMINGTON - The number of movie screens in Bloomington-Normal could double in the coming year.

Wehrenberg Theatres of St. Louis will add 14 screens to the Twin Cities' current 27-screen movie line-up when it opens Galaxy 14 Cine in west Bloomington in early November.

Dallas-based Starplex Cinemas also has plans to open a 14-screen theater later this year or next year at the Constitution Trail Centre at Main Street and Raab Road in Normal.

So when all is said and done, Bloomington-Normal will have 55 screens at six locations.

Site preparation work for Galaxy 14 Cine is underway at the corner of Wiley and Valley View drives, near the Crossroads Center and Wal-Mart, Ronald Krueger, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Wehrenberg Theatres, said at an informational meeting Thursday.

Galaxy 14 Cine will offer stadium seating and digital technology. All rooms will have "snuggle-seats," modeled after the Ford Mustang's bucket seats, with armrests that couples can raise so they can sit closer together, said Ronald Krueger II, president and co-CEO of Wehrenberg Theatres.

One auditorium will have more than 500 seats and a 60-by-40-foot mega-screen, he said. Other rooms will range in size from 125 to 300 seats.

The entire theater will be 59,000 square feet and seat 2,912 movie-goers, said Kurtis Krueger, of Rataj-Krueger Architects, Inc.

The theater also will have a family entertainment area with such games as Dance Dance Revolution and Max-Flight. Fred's Drive-In will offer foods such as pizza, ice cream and toasted ravioli.

Officials declined to release the cost of the project, but the company has taken out city building permits valued at $10.1 million.

The multiplex is something Mike Malone, executive director of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, is eager to welcome.

"I enjoy the theater and so do many people in the community," Malone said.

Currently, Palace Theatres in east Bloomington is the only other local theater company to have stadium seating. Palace Theatres and Parkway Cinemas Theatre in Bloomington recently received digital projection.

The new Starplex Cinemas also would have stadium seating and digital surround sound.

The Wehrenberg project culminates nearly a decade of plans and setbacks.

In 1999, it announced plans to build a 16-screen theater complex near its current proposed location. However, the company's option on that land expired, and it was sold to Wal-Mart, which opened there in 2002. Wehrenberg then reorganized after a bankruptcy filing in 2001.

Prior to announcing the west-side project, Wehrenberg had planned to build the theaters as part of Normal's Constitution Trail Centre development at Raab Road and Main Street. But the company said it pulled out because it couldn't build what it wanted.