Richlister’s fight with council over $6m cinema

A richlister with a personal fortune of $1.8 billion is going head-to-head with a major Queensland council in a bid to stop a $6 million cinema fit out going ahead.

A richlister is going head-to-head with a major southeast Queensland council over its plan to spend millions of dollars of ratepayer cash to prop up a rival cinema complex.

The Courier-Mail can reveal Leda Holdings Chairman Bob Ell, Australia’s 66th richest man with a personal fortune of $1.8bn, is fighting Ipswich City Council’s plan to spend an estimated $6m to fit out a cinema complex for Hoyts just 500m from his existing Limelight Cinemas in the city’s CBD.

Ipswich City Council has entered a due diligence period with a preferred cinema operator, understood to be Hoyts, to negotiate terms for the vacant Birch Carroll & Coyle complex on Nicholas St – despite Birch Carroll & Coyle closing its cinemas in 2019 due to low patronage.

Bob Ell is fighting to have the cinema fit out stopped.

Critics say the cinema reopening in the CBD will add to an already oversaturated market, with Ipswich residents set to have one screen per 6000 people compared the average of one per 10,000.

Mr Ell has slammed the council’s use of ratepayer cash to prop-up a private company, putting it in direct competition with his existing Limelight Cinema complex.

“(The council) should have learnt from the mistakes of their sacked predecessors who thought investing in the commercial and retail sectors was a good idea,” he said.

“Detailed government investigations into those investments revealed they had wasted more than $70m of ratepayers money.”

Mr Ell said he was in favour of a rejuvenated Ipswich CBD, but declared investment would be more effective by providing office space for companies or government departments and offering heavily-discounted rent.

The Limelight Cinema. Photo: David Nielsen / The Queensland Times

“The answer isn’t to spend millions on gifting shops to retailers that are just replicating similar retailers located a stones throw away across the river

“Any further shops in Ipswich will only put more pressure on a retail sector which is already haemorrhaging from Covid lockdowns and restrictions.

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding confirmed the council was negotiating a shared investment in the complex and still determining the cost of fitting out the cinema.

“This split will be determined by the level of rent paid, share of turnover and how this mitigates both parties costs to build and fit out the cinema,” she said.

“It is standard practice in commercial leasing agreements for landlords and tenants to share costs, and there is market evidence of similar deals being done in the region and across Australia.”

Inside the Limelight Cinemas. Picture: David Nielsen / The Queensland Times

Ms Harding said the council had engaged Queensland Treasury Corporation, KPMG and Knight Frank “to ensure that ratepayers receive value for money returns on their investments”.

She insisted the cinema complex would be viable and blamed Birch Carroll & Coyle’s demise on the previous councils’ “failure to implement numerous CBD redevelopment plans, which led to the once-vibrant city centre slowly decaying due to neglect and a lack of investment”.