NEWS
By Susannah Thomsett
Hopes by local residents, traders and film buffs for a return of the iconic Village Twin complex any time soon appear to be dashed.
Securing capital for the project appears to be the latest stumbling block for the site’s redevelopment, with construction now tentatively scheduled for 2012, according to BMD Group senior investment manager Dare Power.
“It is difficult to say when the project will be finished; I have set dates before that obviously didn’t come to fruition,” Mr Power said.
“But if I can get the finance I need by this September or October, construction could begin in 2012 and be completed in late 2012 … however, there are a lot of variables in those dates.”
Mr Power said he got development approval for the Village Twin from City Council late last year, and was now working through issues in raising sufficient capital.
“Due to the demolition this has become significantly more expensive project than we set out with, which is problematic given the current economic climate,” Mr Power said.
Councillor for Central Ward David Hinchliffe told The Independent the Village Twin’s progress was one of the most common issues he gets asked about.
“Generally I think the community is desperate to see the Village Twin development under way,” Cr Hinchliffe said.
“The businesses in this area of New Farm have suffered over the last six years as a result of the hiatus on Village Twin. Not only are these businesses not benefiting from the extra custom from a new Village Twin, but they have had to put up with a loss of parking. As well, the area doesn’t look its best if a major property is mothballed.
“Now the future of the Village Twin, like so many other developments at the moment, is in the hands of the financiers.”
BMD acquired the New Farm heritage-listed site in 2003, and intended to restore the cinema as closely as possible to its original glory.
Mr Power said when BMD bought it, after Village Twin’s tenure ended, the site was in much the same state as when it closed, with both cinema auditoriums left completely unchanged.
“Part of the reason I spearheaded the acquisition of the site was that both auditoriums were so beautiful,” Mr Power said. However, Mr Power said a previous developer’s applications revealed the building’s structural integrity “hadn’t been in good shape for the past 20 years or so”.
“When push comes to shove it would be irresponsible to do nothing to the structure at the rear, the only way to keep it safe [for people to use] was to demolish it.” The rear auditorium, the blue room, was demolished in November 2008, a task that blew out both the time frame and cost of the Village Twin project.
Mr Power said reconstructing heritage-listed buildings was governed by “heritage citations – what council declares is heritage value”.
“Originally this meant all the fixtures and fittings needed to be retained, it was going to be a very onerous job,” Mr Power said.
“The purple room auditorium is still in its 1970s [state], it’s still intact, we will use what original materials we have to effect repairs; there’s not a lot to spare … it’s going to require a little bit of management. “A side effect of the demolition is, armed with the knowledge that a suburban art-house cinema was unlikely to often need a 500-seat auditorium, reconstructing the rear cinema with 200seats makes room for sympathetic retail uses,” Mr Power said.
He saw restaurants, cafes and bookshops sharing the finished building, “nothing glaringly at odds with a cinema”.
Mr Power said who would ultimately run the completed cinema “is something we’re still grappling with, whether to keep it in-house … or talk to an established cinema group.”
“We want to put twin cinemas back on site to be what is had always been – a local cinema that belongs to the community and draws on the community,” Mr Power said.
