Once-troubled theatre’s £12m refit gets £750,000 taxpayer cash
A MAJOR £12m regeneration project at a formerly troubled Yorkshire theatre is to get a boost from the taxpayer.
Leeds City Council’s cabinet is this week expected to rubberstamp the release of £750,000 funding to spruce up a number of vacant and dilapidated shop units near Leeds Grand, inset.
The units will then be leased back to the theatre for an initial rentfree period and will form part of its wider expansion, which includes a new bar and restaurant.
A dedicated new entrance will also be created to sister venue the Howard Assembly Room, which can currently only be accessed via the theatre.
The plans also include a new three-storey atrium space in the alleyway between the vacant shops and the theatre building. The refurbishment project signals the start of a happier chapter in the theatre’s recent troubled history. It was rocked by a fraud scandal involving its former finance chief – who stole hundreds of thousands pounds and is now serving a five-year jail sentence. It also suffered a string of financial woes. Last summer, parent company Opera North also lost out on an application for funding from the Arts Council. However, the company continued to develop its proposals for the refurbishment of the vacant shops, the Howard A ssembly Room and nearby Premier House.
A report being presented to Leeds Council’s cabinet on Wednesday says that the wider project “will not only enhance the resilience of the company by extending and improving the existing buildings to deliver new facilities” but it will “act as the catalyst” for wider regeneration in the city’s flagship cultural quarter.
In 2015, the council’s executive board was asked to approve detailed regeneration proposals which could “re-energise” the area and “support the competitiveness of the Grand Theatre, Opera North and other local businesses”.
The new funding is to be paid in the form of a “reverse premium” – this is cash paid by a landlord to a tenant to take a difficult property off their hands.