An open invitation has gone out for potential teams to take over management of Leicester’s Haymarket Theatre.
Leicester City Council said it wants to talk to anyone interested in running the theatre – and taking on the financial burden of the Belgrave Gate building.
The city centre theatre announced during the spring 2020 lockdown that it would not be reopening when restrictions eased.
Leicester City Council, which now holds the lease again, invested around £3 million installing new the seats and fittings in the 1970s-built red brick theatre four years ago – a decade after it had been stripped out and mothballed when the Leicester Theatre Trust relocated to the new Curve Theatre.
The theatre finally reopened for live music, shows, conferences and corporate events in 2018, under a group called the Haymarket Consortium.
In the months that followed it hosted events for Leicester Comedy Festival, circus shows, tribute acts and musicals and Leicester Beer Festival.
Performances due to take place prior to the 2020 lockdown had included In The Night Garden Live, Bee Gees Fever, The Music of the Moody Blues and Leicester Amateur Operatic Society performing the rock musical Rent.
Creditor’s said the theatre owed £905,000 in total when it went under in May 2020, including almost £285,000 to the consortium running it, and more than £108,000 to banks and other institutions.
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It also owed £300,000 to around 3,500 ticket-holders who were forced to either claim the cash back from credit card companies or Paypal, or wait to see what percentage of their money they would get. Amounts owed to members of the public ranged from £6 up to more than £600.
The council said the lease it has on the building is set to run another 51 years to 2072, and its various annual costs come to around £200,000.
Now a “soft market test questionnaire” has drawn up by the city council inviting anyone interested in the venue to come forward telling them how they might run it.
The questionnaire states that since taking the lease back it had teamed up with Arts Council England to do some consultation work with the city’s cultural sector, which will also be used to look at all the options.
The council said it wants to identify and engage with organisations that wish to take on the full management of the Haymarket as well as those interested in running events there.
It is also interested in hearing from organisations that would like to use all or part of the building for another use.
It said: “This will inform the level of interest in both aspects and allow decisions to be made on the way forward.
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“In terms of revenue funding, Arts Council England have indicated that they are not looking to add to their portfolio of funded theatres in the city.
“The city council’s agreement with the last operators (Haymarket Consortium) was that the existing lease costs would initially be borne by the council but would be transferred to the operator within an agreed period so that the council would be free of financial burden regarding the building.
“The council would be seeking a similar arrangement with any future building operator.
“The city council also hold financial interests in several other city cultural buildings, and specifically in this instance, Curve Theatre and De Montfort Hall and would not wish to see a financial issue created in either of those venues through reopening the Haymarket Theatre.”
The main auditorium seats 902 people and has one of the biggest stages in the 海角视频.
A second studio theatre has room for 120 people seated – although there are currently no seats –and 200 standing, and both auditoria have 10 dressing rooms.
The questionnaire states: “The council would like to hear from potential operators or partners who have innovative ideas and/or those already delivering similar services in other locations in order to support the development of a specification and potentially, a future procurement opportunity.”