Here’s something you don’t see everyday. A local property developer has put his hand up to join the fight to find a new location for Adelaide live music venue The Jade Monkey which learnt last month they’d be displaced by the development of a new hotel.
Steve Maras who runs Maras Group, a privately owned commercial and retail property investment and development firm, told the City Messenger he has earmarked a number of locations around Adelaide but wouldn’t go into specifics.
“One is in an old style office building and the others are something with a bit of edge to it,” said Mr Maras, who is working on the project as part of his role with Renew Adelaide – a not-for-profit project who aim to revitalise under-utilised or empty buildings.
“What we are looking for is a disused entertainment venue, a small bar, an old workshop or warehouse or something a bit edgy that can be converted quite readily into somewhere we can have a stage, a bar set-up and toilet facilities.”
The Jade Monkey will be forced to move later this year to make way for a new 17-storey hotel worth $65 million, despite the fact the area their venue is hosted in is not due to be part of the development.
Their eviction is due to the owners of their building, who also own the adjacent block where the hotel is to be built, deciding they’d rather not have a live music venue annoying the hotel’s future patrons.
“Our wonderful 131 year old bluestone walled building at 29 & 29a Twin Street, Adelaide will be no more,” wrote the owners back in February. “Because even though we aren’t on the exact spot, it seems that the owners don’t want a live music venue next to their shiny new Hotel, something I’m sure this city needs…”
Despite protests from the local music industry and community groups, plans for the hotel have recently been approved by the South Australian Government’s Development Assessment Commission.
The Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood has also disappeared from the cause according to Jade Monkey’s owners, despite assurances at the height of community backlash that he was on the case to try and help find a new home.
“I have not heard from him since. He said he was going to help us relocate,” owner Zac Coligan said. But the Lord Mayor has defending his actions claiming that the local council has been “actively involved” in the search of a suitable space.
“There is one of me and 800 staff so it is not something I can personally do myself but I understand council staff have met with State Government staff and they have been dealing directly with Zac,” said the Lord Mayor in a statement.
News of the closure is just the latest in a string of closures around the country and particularly in Melbourne including the East Brunswick Club which said goodbye last month. Also in the last two years Brisbane has lost The Troubadour, Sydney has lost Low Bar, Tone Bar, the Gaelic, and The Hopetoun, and in Melbourne they lost The Arthouse, and The Public Bar.
The temporary closure of iconic pub The Tote in Melbourne two years ago galvanised the Melbourne music community who fought back against the government culminating in the SLAM rally, which saw 20,000 people march through Melbourne to the tune of AC/DC’s definitive ‘Long Way to the Top’.
