Brisbane’s Tivoli remains a music venue
Brisbane’s Tivoli will continue to remain a live music venue. After facing the possibility of being acquired by investors to be turned into apartments, its sale went through late last week.
The three new owners are live music fans who paid $8.35 million to ensure the 1917 building in the Fortitude Valley precinct remains one of the city’s foremost live music showcasing spaces.
The saving of the Tivoli was as much a triumph for Brisbane’s live music community which ran a grassroots campaign to keep it out of the hands of builders. The theatre comprises a 1700sq m art deco-style auditorium with a mezzanine on a 2190sq m site and has a standing capacity of 1,500.
The Tivoli began at the turn of the 20th century as a bakery, and then a restaurant. The O’Rourke family bought it in 1999 for $1.65 million and turned it into a live music venue.
But by 2013, illness saw them put it on the market for $10 million. But the move was unsuccessful.
Last year the family quietly sussed out if any other music venue operators were interested. None were. So the O’Rourkes advertised it as a prime development opportunity for investors, with the suggestion the building could be demolished to become a 180-units apartment block.
By sheer coincidence, 36-year old Steven Sleswick had just become cashed-up after selling his residential property management business. A live music fanatic, he was a regular at the Tivoli, citing Bob Dylan and the final Powderfinger gig as his two most memorable moments. He, and his brother Dave, a producer at Brisbane Powerhouse, and events caterer Jerome Dalton had often mused about one day owning it.
There was already much interest from other parties in the theatre. So the three quickly got the funding and made the winning bid in April. The deal, supposed to go through in late May, was delayed by four weeks.
At the time of the sale, Sleswick told the Brisbane Courier Mail that $8.35 million was a small price to pay to own an iconic music venue.
“The venue itself is a pretty special place,” he said. “I don’t think you can really put a price on it. Not only in terms of its charm and character but also the list acts that have performed here. You just can’t replace that.
“From our perspective there was a lot of motivation not to lose a piece of history and an iconic venue. But we wouldn’t have paid the price if it wasn’t commercially viable.”
After finishing hosting the Australian Burlesque Festival, among major acts coming up at the Tivoli are Broods (July 8), Peter Garrett and The Alter Egos (July 29), provocative New York singer songwriter Melanie Martinez (August 16), Henry Rollins (September 14, 15), SAFIA (October 7) and The Used (December 8, 9).