Liverpool Council is "looking at a number of options" for the future of the famous ABC Cinema, three years after plans to turn it into a performance venue were approved.
The city council says the venue is crucial to the new Upper Central masterplan, which covers 56 acres of the city centre from Liverpool Central Station to Liverpool Science Park.
Planning for a state-of-the-art music and entertainment venue at the Lime Street building was approved in 2016, with promises of a 1,500 capacity for live performances inside the famous auditorium.
It was then transferred to developer Neptune - now Ion Development - on a 250-year lease for a nominal £1 fee.
It was reported that the scheme hoped to turn the 1931 venue, which has been closed and decaying for 20 years, into a venue of “international standing” complete with a TV studio overlooking Lime Street.
But the last public update to the ABC plans was back in March last year.
Inside the old ABC Cinema:
Speaking at international property festival Mipim in Cannes, Steve Parry, managing director of Ion, said his firm was still moving the £11m project forward behind the scenes, and that it was finalising the funding package.
He told the Liverpool Echo at the time: "It'll take months rather than any longer" - but since then, there doesn't appear to have been much progress on the scheme.
Last week, BusinessLive contacted the council to ask for the very latest on the plans, and the authority told us that plans for the ABC Cinema are included within the Upper Central district.
The Echo reported in July that Upper Central will cover 56 acres of the city centre, running from Liverpool Central Station to Liverpool Science Park and Lime Street to Bold Street.
The newly-branded area is seen as crucial to the city's blossoming Knowledge Quarter - and could create 7,000 new jobs.
Those proposals were included in the council's Spatial Regeneration Framework, which went out to consultation in July, before closing in September.
A spokesman added: "The city council is currently looking at a number of options to make best use of the ABC cinema as it forms a key part of the new Upper Central masterplan, which runs from Lime Street to Brownlow Hill into the city’s Knowledge Quarter."
Ion referred BusinessLive's enquiry to the council.
