The first brick in "Mediacité" (Liège, Belgium) is to be laid today by property developer Wilhelm & Co, with whom Kinepolis Group recently concluded an agreement on setting up a cinema complex comprising eight auditoriums and 1440 seats.
Mediacité is to become a media and leisure environment on the Longdoz site in Liège, consisting of over 6 ha and 190 000 m² of economic, cultural and leisure facilities.
The overall project is to include an image zone ("Pôle Image") covering over 24 500 m² for the leading audiovisual companies in the region. The French-language public broadcaster RTBF will also be locating its "fiction and relaxation" production centre here. In addition to a cinema complex, there are also plans for an Olympic ice rink, a bowling alley, a fitness centre, restaurants, etc.
Kinepolis decided to go ahead with the purchase of the site and the construction of eight cinema auditoriums after an in-depth study of the Liège cinema market in general and Mediacité in particular. The cinema concept will be based on pioneering innovations used in Bruges (Kinepolis Brugge, 8 auditoriums, °2006) and Ostend (Kinepolis Oostende, 8 auditoriums, opening planned on the 8th of July). The most eye-catching of these are the so-called "open foyer", the facilities for seat reservation, the automatic ticket checking system and the extensive digitalization of film, information and communication channels.
Kinepolis will be submitting an application for planning permission in the next few weeks.
Provided the permit procedures run smoothly, the new Kinepolis complex, together with the Mediacité, is scheduled to open in 2009.