Carriageworks saved: arts venue lifted out of voluntary administration
Carriageworks, the state's most high profile arts casualty of the COVID-19 lockdown, has been saved from liquidation.
Creditors voted to accept a multimillion-dollar philanthropic-led bailout of the multi-arts venue at a teleconference meeting this morning, guaranteeing the entitlements of staff, and returning between 20 and 30 cents in the dollar to unsecured creditors.
Carriageworks: soon to reopen its doors. Credit:Rhett Wyman
Administrator Phil Quinlan, from KPMG Australia, had recommended creditors accept the proposal to lift the venue out of administration, after receiving confirmation that a long-term lease had been secured from Create NSW along with five years of guaranteed funding.
The organisation owes more than $2 million to 225 creditors, company records to the market regulator shows.
The directors' plan to resume trading provided a "superior outcome than liquidation", Mr Quinlan said in a letter to creditors dated July 14 and creditors agreed, with no contrary votes among the 60 or so participants.
The result scuttles a push within government for Sydney Opera House to take over the Eveleigh Railway Yards, a favoured option if Carriageworks could not lift itself out of voluntary administration.
Kerr Neilson led the philanthropic bailout, pledging $500,000.Credit:Louie Douvis
The company, which relied primarily on commercial income, had been adversely impacted by the cancellations of public events from March.
Three of the organisation's major arts projects also went over budget in the year leading up to its collapse, including Nick Cave's ambitious installation of thousands of found objects which ran over the summer of 2018/19, was popular and free to the public but cost Carriageworks $439,000 to stage.
Some of Sydney's wealthiest philanthropists stepped into the breach to pledge donations and loans of more than $1.6 million contingent on Carriageworks operating independently.
Board member Geoff Ainsworth and his wife Johanna Featherstone pledged $2 million through their philanthropic Oranges & Sardines Foundation, $1.8 million of that being a low-interest, short-term loan, upon which Carriageworks can drawdown for working capital.
The Neilson Foundation pledged $500,000 and the David Gonski Foundation $200,000, most of the latter to kick in over four years once Carriageworks has resumed trading.
The Crown Resorts Foundation and Packer Family Foundation promised Carriageworks a further $240,000 for the continuation of an arts education program.
Carriageworks will now revert to the control of its board of directors, led by acting chairperson Cass O'Connor, who said the future of the arts company had been secured.
"'Never waste a good crisis' is apt guidance for current times," she said in a statement released shortly after the vote. "From the outset, we undertook to provide the NSW government with viable options for the future of Carriageworks the company, its activities and its Redfern home.
"We could not have done that without Geoff Ainsworth and Jo Featherstone's Oranges & Sardines Foundation, the Neilson family's Neilson Foundation, the Gonski family's Gonski Foundation or the Packer Family's continued support of our Solid Ground program.
"We have emerged from voluntary administration in the middle of a global pandemic with the longest lease in Carriageworks' history and a revised business model which is better able to cope with the challenges evident all around us."
On-site activity will return only as enabled by staged lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, CEO Blair French said. A reopening of the Carriageworks Farmers Market was planned for early August.
"Over 100 years ago this industrial place was born out of resilience and innovation. Through sheer grit, determination and collaboration, we are still here with a promising, independent future," Mr French said. "We can't wait to welcome back the community."