New development plan announced for Brisbane Regent

posted by brizregent on September 19, 2008 at 10:50 am

BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA — The Brisbane Regent Theatre, a cultural and heritage icon in Brisbane, Australia is in danger of being altered into a corporate enclave with little public access, after 80 yeas of continuous service as a picture palace and cinema complex.

The magnificent gothic foyer and grand entrance lobby from 1929 remain intact and are heritage protected. The later rebuilt cinemas behind are not, even though they contain heritage-style original plaster decorations and artifacts.

On September 10, 2008 the Queensland government announced that the Regent cinema complex will be redeveloped into one 300-seat multiuse cinema and two tiny 60 seat cinemas, a loss of around 1000 seats from what is currently there. These will open only on weekends and public holidays.

Several television and cinema industry offices will also be established there, but it would be assumed they would go into already built offices in the Regent Building above the grand entrance lobby.

The Brisbane International Film Festival will now have to find a large enough venue elsewhere for their festival gala events after many years at the Regent.

Almost no new development plans or technical details have been released to date, leaving a concerned public in the dark as to the finer details etc. The original design called for total demolition of the cinemas, to be replaced by a car park and office tower rear entrance. This has been altered due to recent public outcry… but to what exactly?

Please visit the Save the Regent website (link below) for the very latest on this important development.

http://www.debritz.com/str/node/59

Send an email to those who have a say in this development and voice your concerns directly to them. Time is running out!

http://debritz.com/str/node/1

Save the Regent Group
Sept. 17, 2008.
www.savetheregent.com

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