Member Article

Performance for Theatre Royal Helps Secure City Hall

The Theatre Royal Trust’s solicitors, Samuel Phillips, worked closely with their client’s senior management team to secure the future of City Hall.

Newcastle City Council sought new operators for the leisure and entertainment complex following their outline budget plans in 2012. Newcastle City Council has now granted a lease for the City Hall and the City Pool to Fusion Lifestyle Ltd, who are to sub-lease the concert venue to the Theatre Royal Trust.

A proposal put forward by the Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust to operate the City Hall resulted in lengthy, complex negotiations with the Council and Fusion Lifestyle Ltd.

The outcome is the securing of the future of City Hall through a transfer of the business to the Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust, who will continue to run it as a concert and entertainment venue. City Hall employees have been transferred to the Theatre Royal Trust.

Chief executive of the Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust, Philip Bernays, said:

“This is an incredibly exciting time for the audiences of two of Newcastle’s most historic and much loved buildings, as we bring them together into an even bigger and better whole. Samuel Philips, with their expertise and local knowledge and understanding, brought clear sightedness and clarity to what was a complex proposition.”

Head of the Commercial and Property team at Samuel Phillips, Chris Anderson, also commented on the success and importance of the deal: “it has been great working with Philip and his colleagues to successfully conclude the takeover of the City Hall and thereby allow one of the City’s most beloved and important cultural venues to continue into the future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Samuel Phillips Law Firm .