By Cara Waters
The century-old Regent Theatre will be sold to fund a new version of the White Night festival and creative hubs in the city if Nick Reece is re-elected as Melbourne’s lord mayor.
The heritage-listed venue on Collins Street is estimated to be worth between $40 million and $50 million. The City of Melbourne holds a 51 per cent stake in it, while the state government owns the remainder.
The opening night of Moulin Rouge! The Musical at the Regent Theatre. Credit: Sam Tabone
“I think we can get far more public good done if we sell our share in the theatre and put the proceeds back into the creative industries in Melbourne where a helping hand is needed,” Reece told The Sunday Age.
“Most Melburnians probably don’t even realise that the City of Melbourne owns a share in the Regent Theatre, but a lot of people do know there are parts of the creative sector that are really struggling at the moment and could use some support from the city.”
There is no guarantee the Regent – which first opened in 1929 – would remain a theatre following a sale, but Reece said he was “confident” it would.
“There are … very rigorous heritage controls on it, it has been heritage-listed since 1988,” he said. “It will continue as a theatre because we have a thriving theatre industry.”
Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece and candidate for deputy lord mayor Roshena Campbell outside the Regent Theatre on Saturday.Credit: Simon Schluter
Reece said if re-elected – council elections are in October – he would use the proceeds from the Regent sale to create a “City Solstice Winter Festival”.
He described it as a commercially viable long-term event modelled on White Night, the popular 24-hour celebration of art featuring events such as installations and street parties.
“The Docklands has the Firelight Festival, we’ll take that festival and expand it and put it on a White Night-type scale across the inner city,” he said.
The money would also go towards new artist residencies and creative hubs for non-profit art groups, such as the Collingwood Yards, through long-term leases and permanent opportunities.
The century-old theatre is estimated to be worth between $40 million and $50 million. The City of Melbourne owns a 51 per cent stake.Credit: Joe Armao
“It could be West Melbourne Yards, Carlton Yards, it could be a CBD office building,” Reece said.
Reece has also earmarked $1 million over three years for small grants to support Melbourne’s live music scene to benefit local artists and small businesses that host live music events.
He said $2 million of the proceeds from the Regent sale would be dedicated to grants supporting the operational needs of theatres and not-for-profit art groups across Melbourne over three years.
Another $2 million would be allocated to local festivals and community markets, like the new Lygon Street Market, A Day in Carlton and the Docklands Sunday Market.
As a condition of the theatre sale, Reece said he wanted 1000 tickets to be made available every year to shows at the Regent for City of Melbourne public school students so they could more easily access live performances.
The Regent first operated as a movie theatre, but by the 1960s, Melbourne’s grand picture palaces were no longer popular. In 1969, Hoyts sold the Regent to the City of Melbourne, which wanted to control development around the site of the City Square, prompting a community campaign to save the theatre from the wrecker’s ball.
The theatre sat empty for many years but re-opened in 1996 following an extensive renovation. It’s since hosted ballets, fashion shows and musicals, including The Lion King, Wicked and Moulin Rouge.
The Australian Ballet’s new production, Oscar, based on the life of Oscar Wilde, will premier at the Regent next week.
“The City of Melbourne protected the Regent Theatre by stepping in and purchasing it, at that point … the Melbourne theatre industry was in dire straits, it was an emergency measure to save the theatre,” Reece said.
“We now have a theatre industry that is doing really well and there is no longer a market failure that requires the City of Melbourne to hold this asset.”
The proposal follows the recent sale of the City of Melbourne’s prized asset, Citywide waste and recycling, for $110 million.
But Reece said he was “absolutely not” selling off the family china.
“This is a strategic decision based on the fact that the market failure that justified the City of Melbourne buying the Regent Theatre 30 years ago no longer applies,” he said.
“We can unlock the value of that asset and direct those funds into the contemporary arts scene in a way which will set our creative industries up for decades to come.”
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