Palace Cinemas planning 12-screen venue with bar, cafe in central Surfers Paradise at Piazza Centre
A MULTI-screen cinema centre will be built in the heart of a Gold Coast suburb that hasn’t had one in two decades.
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SURFERS Paradise is to get its first full-blown cinema centre in 23 years as part of an $11 million redevelopment of the Piazza centre.
Independent national chain Palace Cinemas plans to open a 12-screen centre before Christmas.
It will be on level four of the Piazza, which is to be renamed the X Galaxy Centre by a group of Hong Kong investors who bought it for $22 million last year.
Palace says the cinema centre will include lounge and bar areas and will stream, in addition to mainstream and new-release films, the group’s ‘trademark’ international film festivals.
“The cinema centre, set with a frontage on to Surfers Paradise Boulevard, will be surrounded by a plethora of retailers, restaurants and bars which will contribute to the strip’s lively atmosphere.”
Piazza leasing agent Michael Parisi, a director of Raine and Horne Commercial Gold Coast, yesterday said the arrival of Palace was step one in returning the building to the golden days when it was viewed as a premier centre in the heart of Surfers.
Surfers Paradise lost its only multi-screen cinema centre when the former Hoyts building and the southern end of the city centre was sold in 1995.
The four-level Piazza, bought by the Raptis Group before the GFC, opened in 1985 as the Galleria.
The Hong Kong investors bought the property, which also fronts Elkhorn Ave, from the holder of the debt on it, US group Goldman Sachs.
Palace, which has 134 screens spread across 22 locations, describes its cinema centres as ‘architecturally significant’ and each has a bespoke bar or cafe.
The group was started by Antonio Zeccola who in the 70s operated iconic suburban cinemas in Melbourne, including The Palace in Bourke St.
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