D-day for former Ritz
DEVELOPERS will be on board to breathe much-needed life back into a once majestic building and forgotten area of Nuneaton town centre by Christmas next year.
That is according to Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council which has set itself an ambitious date of December 2018 to ‘secure the development’ of the former Ritz, ex-Kingsholme pub site and the Abbey Street car park.
Developing the Upper Abbey Street area has been high on the council’s agenda for a number of years but no projects have ever got off the ground.
But now the Town Hall has set itself a target, of getting a developer and investor on board by Christmas next year to finally get the ball rolling.
A spokesperson for the local authority said: “Work is being taken forward to secure the development of the scheme with the occupiers, contractors and partner agencies.
“The December 2018 target is to ‘secure the development’, the first stage in the process. Once this has been achieved a detailed work programme can be produced.
“Cabinet will be kept informed of progress.”
It has been a decade since the once Ritz was last in use and, despite several attempts to get it re-opened, nothing has yet come to fruition. Opened in July 1937, it was built by the Union Cinemas Circuit but was quickly taken over by Associated British Cinemas (ABC).
Its impressive, plush interior attracted cinema goers from far and wide and it had a majestic Compton Organ that rose from an orchestra pit.
But cinemas declined and the Ritz closed in 1984 when it was sold and re-opened as the Ritz Bingo Club and then became the Gala Bingo Club, until it closed at the end of 2007.
The building has been on the market ever since and forms part of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council’s Upper Abbey Street regeneration plan, which also includes the former Kingsholme pub, a once popular watering hole and part of the famed ‘Abbey Run’, which has stood empty years.
Also included within the planned regeneration area is the Abbey Street car park, known to many as the Co-op car park. This is the only element of the project that still remains in use.