This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE owners of Braddon’s Hopscotch Bar will open Canberra’s newest nightclub within the Centre Cinema building at 50 Bunda Street, after leasing 850 sqm across the building’s two bottom levels.
Fiction nightclub will open shortly following a major refurbishment, according to leasing agent Caleb Brinton of Colliers International, and join Shorty’s bar within the building.
Centre Cinema was designed by Milan-trained architect Enrico Taglietti, who brought to Australia the idea of an underground cinema when he migrated from Italy in 1926.
Initially a four-storey office building with an underground cinema seating 500 people, the building underwent a substantial refurbishment in 2004 that saw the underground cinema converted into the popular Academy nightclub, the space of which Fiction will be taking over.
“Many were disappointed when the Academy nightclub in the Centre Cinema building suddenly announced it would be closing,” Brinton said.
“Academy had been one of the ACT’s most popular afterhours venues for more than a decade. Before Academy even ceased trading, the space was leased.”
Private company Beach Road Enterprises purchased the historic mixed-use building of 2,071 sqm for $9.8 million in May last year.
