Hackney Empire has sold Bullion Rooms
The Hackney Gazette, 12th March 2010The sale of The Hackney Empire’s Sixties office block in Wilton Way has gone ahead.
Hackney Council’s planning sub committee gave the thumbs up a £4.5million redevelopment project to turn the theatre’s Bullion Room in Wilton Way into a seven-storey complex of 25 flats and houses with a community space and café for the theatre.
And the Empire’s chairman, David Robins, confirmed the sale of the property to developer Thornsett Group had now gone through – with contracts exchanged.
The theatre had been relying on this income to help pay off its spiralling debts left by the £19.5 million rebuilding project followed by year-on-year losses running to over £1.1 million since 2004. Last year, the theatre made a loss of £352,966.
It will receive £1.1million from Thornsett Group for the property, which will go some way to stabilise the company.
The theatre is currently closed but bosses hope this injection of cash will help it rise from the ashes.