Wellington councillor frustrated Reading Cinemas meeting held behind closed doors

Frustration is growing at Wellington City Council after a meeting behind closed doors to discuss the future of the Reading Cinemas building.

The movie theatre on Courtenay Place has been closed since 2019 after it was deemed earthquake prone and needed to be strengthened.

RNZ understands part of the meeting discussed a multimillion-dollar deal where the council is considering buying land underneath Reading Cinemas.

It comes after revelations the Town Hall’s budget blow out could cost a further $182 million to rate payers. Initially expected to cost $32m to fix, the budget could now cost up to $329m.

In Wednesday’s meeting councillors voted 10 to six on excluding details from the public around Reading Cinemas’ future.

Councillors say they are conflicted about the information being publicly excluded because they believe rate payers deserve to know what their money is being spent on.

Councillor Diane Calvert said she did not believe the council was giving Wellingtonians enough transparency into council’s spending.

“I don’t believe so at this stage, it is their money and it’s also their debt so we need to be much more open and when we know significant information we must be prepared to share it not wait until we’ve dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s,” Calvert said.

Wellingtonians RNZ spoke to agreed.

Weltec student Toby Nakshbandi said the public had a right to know details.

“You’re paying rent to something and you should know what your money is going to. If they’re telling people that they shouldn’t know what is going on then that’s just kinda crap,” Nakshbandi said.

Fellow Weltec student Ezra Gillon echoed this.

“I think that’s really sketchy, it doesn’t really make sense and I don’t see a real reason as to why they would do that. As a rate payer, as someone who pays money to the government we do have a right to know what’s going on,” Gillon said.

Second year architecture student Luke Sutton said the building was currently a wasted opportunity and no longer served a purpose.

“Especially in a place that acts as a bit of a community hub or at least has done in the past, sort of a space like that I suppose is pretty important for people to know what’s happening in the future and what the plans for it are,” Sutton said.

The Reading Cinemas’ carpark was demolished in 2017 after it was found to have structural damage following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.
Photo: RNZ / Max Towle

Retailer worker Jayda Scott said she had fond memories of the cinema and would love to see the area revamped.

“I’d like to see how it was before [as] the entrance to Courtenay Place, a bunch of shops on the inside, food stalls, something that will bring a bunch of traffic into Courtenay Place because at the moment it’s pretty dead,” Scott said.

On the other hand, councillors fear releasing too many details could backfire on Wellingtonians and the council because of the commercial and sensitive nature of the deal.

One of the issues councillors face is that Reading Cinemas is owned by an American-based corporation.

Councillors RNZ has spoken to have described the Reading Cinemas building which is on privately-owned land as an eyesore and they want to revitalise the area.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau declined an interview with RNZ’s Midday Report but in a statement said sharing the details was unhelpful.

“The leaking of information from a publicly excluded meeting is unacceptable. The reasons why some issues are discussed in confidence are clear and already in the public domain. It’s because of commercial confidence, the detail or what is being discussed is preliminary, or both. This is not unique to Wellington City Council.”

She said the deal currently being discussed would help rejuvenate the area at no cost to ratepayers.

“It’s something I campaigned on and am passionate about delivering for Wellington,” Whanau said.

“I will be speaking publicly as soon as details are finalised so Wellingtonians can get a full, clear picture of what will happen.”