Eyal Aharoni is strengthening and redeveloping the long-shuttered Courtenay Pl Reading Cinema Complex.
It will see Reading Cinemas return as the key long-term tenant alongside a “reimagined mix of entertainment, retail, and hospitality offerings”, he said.
Another objective is to link Courtenay Pl with the Tākina convention centre behind it, by acting as a thoroughfare through to Wakefield St.
Inside, the building remains largely unchanged, with the old popcorn machine still in place and movie posters from 2019 lining the walls.
Abandoned food stalls still remain in the Courtenay Pl cinema Complex which was closed in 2019.
Having been closed for a number of years, some of the cinemas have been infested with mould, with chairs and curtains now removed.
The six-month seismic strengthening project, which Aharoni initially projected to cost $10m, has increased, with Primeproperty now planning to spend $27m, followed by an internal fit-out, partially paid for by Reading and other tenants.
“It’s a $50m project”, he said.
The rich-list developer has pledged to strengthen the building to 70% of the New Building Standard (NBS), despite a Government change rendering those standards redundant.
Parts of the closed Reading Cinema Complex have been gutted.
Old movie posters remain on the walls of the derelict Reading Cinema.
He’s optimistic it will help revitalise Courtenay Place by drawing people in, but said more must be done to breathe fresh life into the area.
“It’s certainly going to help, but Courtenay Place needs more than that.”
The planned cinema offering includes 10 theatres, including premium, large-format Titan screens, similar to IMAX.
The ground-level retail and hospitality offering will also include an arcade, similar to Timezone.
One of the soon-to-be redeveloped cinemas inside the Courtenay Central complex.
Aharoni said Reading’s selection of the buyer for the site “was not about the best price, it was the best outcome”.
“I understand there were offers which are higher than us, Reading decided to go with us because Reading wants to stay on the site.”
Profitability was not a key motivator, Aharoni said, admitting “it’s not going to be a highly profitable project”, but he decided to take it on out of a desire to revitalise the area.
“It’s our neighbourhood,” he said. “We are Wellingtonians, we think it needs to be open again and that’s what we want to see happening.”
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.