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One of Kings Cross’s last surviving art deco theatres is to be converted into a boutique hotel and cabaret room despite the last-minute intervention of the state’s former arts minister.
Town Hall’s Central Planning Committee granted conditional approval on Thursday night to repurpose the Metro-Minerva Theatre, a building notable for its interwar modernist architecture and its staging of the seminal 1969 production of Hair.
A proposed design for the interior of the Metro-Minerva converted to a Paris-style cabaret room.
For its next chapter, the heritage-listed site will become a 63-room hotel and a 250-seat auditorium, offering contemporary Parisian-style cabaret entertainment.
It was property developer Central Element’s third attempt to progress its $69 million proposal for the former cinema, once the headquarters of the production company Kennedy Miller, creator of the Happy Feet, Mad Max, and Babe films.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the proposal had been subject to a very rigorous and thorough planning process. While she conceded the hundreds of residents who had petitioned for its use as a theatre would be unhappy, the plans represented the best outcome for the site given the circumstances.
“An important building that has been empty will get a new life, an adaptive reuse,” she said. “The Queen Victoria Building stood empty and a former Lord Mayor wanted to demolish it for a car park,” she said. “It’s a classic example of what can happen when buildings remain empty and don’t get a new life, and I have great confidence in the architects.”
Business leaders spoke of the need to reverse the loss of 3700 hotel rooms in the Kings Cross precinct and bring an end to uncertainty.
City of Sydney Liberal councillor, Lyndon Gannon, said the decision was the final curtain call for Kings Cross.
“We won’t see Kings Cross as the thriving and dynamic precinct it once was, and importantly could have been, ever again now,” he said.
Former Coalition arts minister, Don Harwin, spoke in favour of the Metro-Minerva Theatre’s retention as a working theatre to address a shortage in venues of between 800 and 1000 seats.
Then and now: The Metro-Minerva Theatre.Credit: James Brickwood
“In the last 50 years, central Sydney has lost over a dozen theatres. I want to get the Minerva Theatre off that list,” he said.
“Sydney has fewer theatre seats than comparable cities. Melbourne, Chicago and New York have 400–500 seats per million residents. Sydney has only 300.”
Under Harwin’s watch, the building had been state heritage listed, and a feasibility study commissioned showing it could be viably reopened as a theatre. He warned if the proposal was to go ahead, the building would never again re-open as a theatre.
Central Element said final approval for The Minerva was a testament to its commitment to tirelessly pursue the “most advantageous solutions for its acquired site” while “enduring” a three-year-long approval process.
“CE has diligently invested substantial time and resources to reintegrate The Minerva into the rich tapestry of Potts Point, with plans to transform the heritage art deco building into a vibrant new hotel, entertainment, and dining destination.”
Brandon Martignago, who was among more than 1700 people to petition against the redevelopment, renewed calls for the state government to intervene and purchase the building, one of only 12 art deco theatres surviving in Sydney.
“This is Premier Chris Minns’ and Planning Minister, Paul Scully’s opportunity to be involved in Sydney’s renaissance. There is only so much businesses can do,” he said.
The 1930s cinema had been used as an entertainment venue until its closure in 1976. It had staged the rock musical Hair in 1969, which starred John Waters, Reg Livermore, and a then 16-year-old Marcia Hines.
The dress circle boxes and connecting balustrade molding are to be preserved along with the grand staircase and auditorium shell which will operate five days a week as a 250-seat venue.
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