Bournemouth Imax's days are numbered (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Bournemouth Imax's days are numbered
8:00am Saturday 24th July 2010 in
ENCOURAGING progress is being made on buying out the Imax leases but council chiefs are remaining tight-lipped on any future demolition dates.
Deputy council leader Cllr John Beesley said the aim was to substantially demolish the Waterfront building at Bournemouth Pier Approach as soon as possible.
But this cannot be done until the council has either negotiated a price for cinema operator Sheridan’s two remaining leases or successfully served a compulsory purchase order on the company.
Cllr Beesley said: “I still hope that we can reach a negotiated settlement. It’s got to be preferable for both parties than going down the compulsory purchase order route. We would like that to happen as soon as possible because we want to substantially demolish the building.
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“The sooner we do that and achieve the aspirations of Bournemouth the better but we’ve got to do what’s best for the council taxpayer in terms of cost as well.”
A report to the council’s planning board on Monday labels the project a “high risk” because it involves £8.5 million of council funds. It also confirms that whatever replaces the Waterfront building must include some sort of arts facility. This is because the council used money from the sale of Terrace Mount car park to seal the Imax deal – this money was originally intended to build a replacement Winter Gardens and can only be used to support arts developments in the town centre.
When asked whether he felt potential developers and Bournemouth residents were aware of this restriction, Cllr Beesley said: “The professional advice was that everything we had done had been done with clarity and was acceptable to officers from a professional point of view.
“I don’t think we’ve got anything to be concerned about.”
Comments(2)
Adrian Fudge
says...
1:37pm Sat 24 Jul 10
Richboscombe wrote:The cost is unknown but the original report mentions "Prudential Borrowing " of £3.5M which will come from our Council Tax.
Cllr Beesley said: “The professional advice was that everything we had done had been done with clarity and was acceptable to officers from a professional point of view. “I don’t think we’ve got anything to be concerned about.” ....so he didn't answer the question then. And despite trumpeting that they were buying the Imax they still have to negotiate to buy out two leases? How much more money will that cost? Yet another example of the councillors running this town not being honest about the actual situation.
In addition we have already lost the investment income on the Capital and the rental income
I hope all those that think this is good value are satisfied when they see cuts in services or increases in charges and all there is to show for it is an empty partly demolished IMAX
It will be interesting to see what offers for the site come forward especially since the Council are meant to be using their "best endevours" to secure an Arts content equal invalue to the Capital employed from the Terrace Road Car Park receipt and also the failure over many years before the IMAX was built to get a commercially viable offer for the site
I wonder if the suggestion in the original report that this site will transfered to the new partnership company the Council has set up which already has all the Car Parks allocated to it, will be the final result
In view of the comments frequently appearing on this site regarding Councillors and Developers it is interesting to note that these assets are gradually being removed from direct Council control without a murmure
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Richboscombe says...
12:12pm Sat 24 Jul 10
“I don’t think we’ve got anything to be concerned about.”
....so he didn't answer the question then. And despite trumpeting that they were buying the Imax they still have to negotiate to buy out two leases? How much more money will that cost?
Yet another example of the councillors running this town not being honest about the actual situation.