OPEN: Jessica Van der Westen and Annika Milne from Bomo Bandwagon Cafe hand out opening day free coffee to Zoe Foukas of Willowbank and Kez Danielson of Raceview.
Council refuses to reveal the cost to get cinema deal signed
IT has been a good few weeks for the CBD’s Nicholas Street Precinct with three new food outlets opening and council confirming Hoyts has agreed to be the anchor tenant.
That Dumpling Place started the ball rolling three weeks ago followed by Zambrero’s opening a small takeaway style outlet a fortnight ago and then a new café, Bomo Bandwagon, opened last week at the top of the mall next to the newsagency.
This was followed up by council highlighting on its website that after years of negotiations they had got
Hoyts over the line to open a new theatre.
The cinema is an anchor tenant for council and it’s expected to provide the springboard for more retail
openings in the coming months.
While it was good news for council it was not greeted with applause by Riverlink’s Limelight Cinema just across the river.
In voicing their strong opposition to a new CBD outlet they pointed out that the district was already overstocked with 30 screens at nearby cinemas in Ipswich, Redbank, Springfield and Jindalee.
They also said they were concerned with council signing a lease which involved multi-millions in ratepayer’s funds been handed out as a fitout contribution.
When asked for the details of the Hoyts lease, council once again refused to give details ducking behind “commercial in confidence”.
Their full response when asked for details of what they are contributing said: “Council is committed to
transparency, however, is unable to release specific terms of the leases with tenants due to commercial confidentiality.
Council can however advise the total development cost for the venue building, which includes the cinema and other prospective tenants, is about $50 million. This is for the redevelopment of the
entire site, not just the cinema area.
The contributions to the fitout of any tenant in the Nicholas Street Precinct is a commercial in confidence
matter that cannot be disclosed by council.
Similarly, the amount of rent being paid by Hoyts to council is commercial in confidence but has been independently assessed against market standards by Knight Frank Real Estate to ensure that it is commercially competitive.”
Hoyts’ spokesman Tyrone Dodds said they were pleased to be joining the Ipswich community with the new sixscreen state-of-the-art cinema that would feature powered recliner seats.
Hoyts Ipswich is expected to be ready for theatre lovers by late 2023.
