The former Mecca Bingo hall in Dundee city centre is being transformed into a state-of-the-art music venue.
Scheduled to open in December, the 4,500-capacity arena will be the third largest in Scotland behind the OVO Hydro in Glasgow and the P&J Live in Aberdeen.
As well hosting musical performances and conferences, the venue will also see exhibitions and esports events.
The latest development comes six years after plans were first mooted to redevelop the Nethergate site into a concert venue.
But who is behind the plans and what has previously been earmarked for the site?
Who is behind LiveHouse?
LiveHouse is owned by Dundee-based company TDI.
Its director Michael Carolan led the £15 million redevelopment of the former Tay Hotel on Whitehall Crescent into the Malmaison.
The new hotel opened in 2014 was part of the wider £1bn transformation of the City’s Waterfront.
Angus Robb will be the venue’s operator.
He has over 30 years’ experience promoting shows and events in Dundee, including the recent Euro 2024 fan park at Riverside.
What is the history of the Mecca Bingo site?
The original art deco building was first opened in March 1936 as Green’s Playhouse, at the time one of the largest cinema and theatre spaces in Europe.
It was designed by John Fairweather, who was the architect for the Green’s cinema chain.
The auditorium could hold more than 2,500 people in the stalls and 1,500 in the circle areas.
It closed as a cinema in January 1968 and was subsequently turned into a bingo hall.
But in August 1995 a devastating fire destroyed the former cinema building.
It was then rebuilt with only the restored tower remaining of the Playhouse.
Mecca Bingo opened in 1997 before shutting earlier this year.
What were the other plans?
In 2018, proposals were unveiled for the Mecca Bingo site to be redeveloped into a 6,000 capacity venue.
They were developed by Glasgow-based architects Wilson+Gunn.
It imagined the arena would have an all-seated capacity of 4,775 over three tiers that could be expanded to 6,375 by incorporating standing on the ground floor.
A restaurant, café and bars were also planned.
However, four years later, fresh plans for a 10,000-capacity arena were revealed.
These plans utilised the existing Mecca Bingo but also swept round to use ‘site 2’ in the Dundee Waterfront plan.
As well as the arena, the plans boasted a 70-room hotel, restaurants and bars.
The estimated cost of the project was between £60m and £70m.
Neither of these plans materialised.
Conversation