Leicester City Centre designated Leicester's new cultural quarter, and is already the site of the Leicester Creative Business Depot(built on the old Leicester City Bus depot and keeping the initials) and the Athena. The LCB Depot opened in July 2004, and by the time of its first birthday had let 37 of 55 units, with talk starting of finding an additional site. Opposite the Athena, a new flagship £60 million Curve Theatre, Leicester, designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects, started construction in 2005, on a site that has been long-disused. It is planned to be ready for handover 2007 to the Haymarket company, who
Empire, Leicester Square acquired for redevelopment by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with its last live theatre performance being "Lady Be Good", starring Fred Astaire. Most of the theatre was demolished in 1927, with the Empire rebuilt as a film theatre on an expanded site with the auditorium block now extending East to Leicester Place; the architect was Thomas W. Lamb with assistance from F.W. Boettcher and Frederick G.M. Chancellor of Frank Matcham and Company as the local architect, and the Anglo-Scottish Construction Company Ltd was the contractor. Parts of the Frank Verity designed exterior remain visible on the West side. It opened on 8 November 1928