Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Reading to reopen cinemas after building strengthened by new owner
Wellington.Scoop
Reading International has announced that it will be signing a long-term lease to reopen its Courtenay Central cinemas, after a seismic upgrade of the building has been carried out by the new owner Primeproperty Group. Reading said the sale price for the empty cinemas and associated land was $38million.
As well as cinemas, the strengthened and upgraded space will feature new retail outlets, eateries, and other amenities.
Primeproperty Group CEO Eyal Aharoni said:
“We believe this site offers great potential to provide a much-needed retail and cinema complex with generous parking for Wellington.
“Together with Reading Cinemas Courtenay Central Limited, a subsidiary of Reading International, we will ensure that Wellingtonians have access to a world-class cinematic experience, while the new retail and hospitality offerings will help reinvigorate the area.”
Aharoni said the complex will reopen sometime in 2026 (depending on planning and consents), with the same number of cinemas which will have had “a comprehensive top to bottom transformation with the aim of providing a world class cinematic experience”.
RNZ reports that Film reviewer Graeme Tuckett said local cinemas had stepped up to fill the gap left by the closure of the Reading multiplex in 2019. He hoped Reading would invest enough in the complex to set it apart from the other offerings in the capital.
“Plus the mighty Embassy, you’ve also got the LightHouse, The Roxy, the Penthouse, all of whom do an incredible job and Wellington cinema-goers have still been able to get a ticket when they want one.
“But I think if [Reading Cinemas] were to really spend the money and put an IMAX screen in there, they would make an awful lot of friends.”
The timing for the reopening was impeccable, he said, now that the film industry has almost fully recovered from a brutal three-year stretch in the wake of the pandemic.
RNZ reports that the Wellington hospitality company Trinity Group’s Jeremy Smith said reopening the cinemas would bring a greater variety of people back into Courtenay Place.
“Having that balance between cinemas, retail and hospitality – it’s going to be great for the street – because you’re bringing people in at different times of the day and that’s what Courtenay Place needs to revitalise is the street to be busy from the late afternoon through the dining into the late night live music scene.”
Smith said the Council’s Golden Mile project remained a potential “spanner in the works” for a community desperate to see the party district come alive again.
“That’s going to disrupt the whole street for potentially a long time. Personally, I’d prefer the Golden Mile doesn’t go ahead and we look at other alternatives of revitalising Courtenay Place and that will speed up the entire process as well,” Smith said.
January 5: Wellington property investor buys Reading Cinema complex
Can we celebrate the opening with a new council in 2026? Please.
An unbelievably good result. Far better than I thought would be possible.
Congrats to all those who opposed the council deal. You have been proven 100% correct!
Interesting. Especially the bit about the Golden Mile vandalism project. The WCC keep changing the reason why Mayor Whanau is desperate to do it. But the truth is she just wants a legacy project to boost her ego.
Strange decision. Cinemas are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Unless it’s a hyped blockbuster in the first week.
Very apt comments, Jenny and Simon. The decision to can the Reading deal was the only wise thing that the council has done. Note that Aharoni paid $38 million for the entire site, whereas the WCC was going to pay $32 million for just the land under the empty building. Shame on Tory Whanau, Tim Brown, John Apanawicz, Ben McNulty, Rebecca Matthews, Sara Free, Laurie Foon, Geordie Rogers, Teri O’Neill and Nikau Wineera! Voting against the sale were: Diane Calvert, Ray Chung, Iona Pannett, Tony Randle, Nicola Young and Nureddin Abdurahman. Ray Chung filed a complaint with the Auditor General asking them to investigate this poorly conceived proposal. Remember these councillors when you go to vote.
Thank you to Primeproperty and Eyal Aharoni for giving Wellington some truly welcome New Year’s news.
Remember it is election year. Vote out Tory Whanau and the Green councillors who are using your rates money for their pet projects. Let’s get some fiscal responsibility and no more cycleways that no one uses.
Yay! One idea for a shopfront. Talk to the colleges and make a “Dragon Den”-like competition and give the youth an opportunity to show their entrepreneurial ideas. I support businesses where ideas are coming from the youth. After all they are our future.
Wellington has five fine cinemas: Lighthouse Cuba, Embassy, Penthouse, Empire, and Roxy. Is there a need for more? As a customer of the existing cinemas, I doubt it … I think that we cinema-goers are already well served. I trust that if the Reading site’s cinemas are restored, we don’t have a repeat of the loss of the popular Paramount Cinema. That large and excellent cinema contributed so much to the liveliness of Courtenay Place.
I hope the facade is revamped. It is awful and downmarket.
When Reading closed Courtenay Central in 2019, it opened some “pop up” cinemas for a period – I think there were 3 or 4.
They were in Lower Hutt. They closed mid-2023.
Claire – I’m really hopeful that Prime Property has been hiring some very good architects for the replanning of the ground floor – including the new pedestrian links to Tory and Wakefield. And yes, I’m also really hopeful that the entire facade is ripped off and destroyed. It’s ugly, it’s mouldy, and it is a really crappy awful design, not helped by having a steak house with rusty corrugated iron pretending to make it more rustic.
This is a chance for a new classy development for Wellington. We deserve a move upmarket…!
Thanking Khandallah and LA partners for these Reading details.
Hope the refurb includes a new street facade. It’s an ugly looking building and has been from the day it was built.