Construction of a movie theater planned for the Santa Fe Railyard is delayed for an unknown time, developers said Monday.

During construction of the adjacent underground parking structure on leased city land, workers partially excavated the site that is tagged to hold the theater, but further work on the project is not funded.

"We are very committed to the theater," said Rick Jaramillo, one of three partners in Railyard Co. development firm. "We are working with Maya Cinema and we are seeking financing. We have a couple of different prospects and basically the financial system is in real trouble. Credit markets are frozen and we are just looking for different types of financing to get the theater off the ground."

The group had already built Market Station, a large Railyard building that is home to REI and a local clothing store and is slated to include a Flying Star restaurant and other businesses. Until that work is more complete, however, getting money for the partially underground movie theater is hard to come by.

Meanwhile, potential public financing for the project caused a major dust up as the Legislature was adjourning Saturday.

House Speaker Ben Luján, D-Nambé, carried an amendment to a Senate measure that could have allowed financing for the project through a city approval process. The amendment ultimately was stripped from the bill before it was sent to Gov. Bill Richardson. Richardson's office said Monday it would be days before the governor will know whether he'll sign it.

Senate Finance Committee chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said during a conference committee meeting earlier Saturday that the amendment had a "cloud of suspicion" over it, leading Luján to angrily confront and curse at Smith on the Senate floor soon after the session ended.

Luján on Monday said "maybe the choice of words I used wasn't the best or normally what I would have used."

Luján said he approached Smith as he was talking to reporters so he could get his side of the story out.

"I didn't want you all to leave the session with (just) his own interpretation," Luján said.

Luján reiterated that he put the amendment on in a public meeting, has no financial interest in the project as was trying to help constituents, just as Smith would help his by sponsoring funding for projects in his area.

Even without the drama of those Senate-floor fireworks, the Santa Fe Railyard project is already an interesting public-private partnership. The city bought about 50 track-side acres in 1994 through a voter-approved bond, then created a master plan for its redevelopment through a community-inspired process.

Later, it leased the land to a nonprofit called Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp. to manage the project and to enter into secondary leases on individual parcels with private developers who agreed to build certain buildings. Many of those projects, along with about 13 areas of public open space, were completed for a grand opening last summer. The movie theater is named as a desired feature in the plans that date back more than a decade.

Richard Czoski, director of the nonprofit, said the project is still important to the overall plan for the site. Since construction could take about 18 months, the theater's doors aren't likely to open for two years at the earliest, he said.

"Given the economic realities that we live in today, the delay is not desirable, but it's understandable," he said. "(Railyard Co. has) made good progress on leasing the Market Station building so that is one reason why we are cautiously optimistic that they are still going to produce the theater."

Jaramillo and his partners say the city also is to blame for the changing timeline and said the group was in "the unfortunate position of having to seek financing."

"The delays of this project were primarily due to the fact that the city ... failed to condemn the necessary easements, legal access, provide utilities to permit construction and retire one of the rail lines all affecting Railyard Co.'s leasehold interests," reads a statement the company issued late Monday.

The statement also condemned Smith's reaction to the Luján amendment.

"Clearly the speaker understands the economic times we are living in ...," it reads, "whereas John Arthur Smith, the Senator from the south, is out of touch with America, New Mexico, our Capitol City and ... the Santa Fe Railyard."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.