LONGMONT - Regal Cinemas has agreed to terms of a lease to operate a new, 12-screen theater at the Twin Peaks Mall, Longmont Mayor Dennis Coombs said Tuesday.

Neither Regal Entertainment Group representatives (NYSE: RGC) nor mall developer NewMark Merrill Mountain States project manager Allen Ginsborg returned requests for comment on Wednesday. Regal currently operates the 10-screen United Artists theater at the existing mall.

"That is good news for the project and the community, and we want to express our appreciation to both parties for coming to a successful conclusion to their negotiation," Coombs said Tuesday, reading from a prepared statement.

Ginsborg has said in the past that his development company "couldn't build the theater that Regal would like without Dillard's approval." The Knoxville, Tennessee-based Dillard's department store holds veto power over any redevelopment plans at the mall. The department store opened at Twin Peaks Mall in 1998.

Architectural renderings of a preliminary plan show a free-standing theater complex in the northeast corner of the property, north of a free-standing Dillard's store. A Dillard's spokeswoman did not return requests for comment on Wednesday.

The successful redevelopment of Twin Peaks Mall is one of Longmont's highest priorities, Coombs said Tuesday. Senior city staff members have been involved in negotiations between NewMark Merrill and Regal and between NewMark Merrill and Dillard's, "but specific terms have been exchanged directly between the parties," Coombs said.

NewMark Merrill bought the indoor mall for $8.5 million last year. The existing mall is scheduled to be demolished, starting this summer, Ginsborg has said. A new, unnamed 100,000-square-foot retail tenant has been signed. The new development is slated to be complete in fall 2014.