A new 1.5 billion Br headquarters is set to replace the current National Theater, formerly known as Haile Selassie I Theatre.

The new 12-storey building will rest on 7,000Sqm of land located behind the headquarters of Awash Bank and Awash Insurance in Beherawi. Afro-Tsion Construction Plc, a two-decade-old firm that previously constructed Oromia Cultural Center and Addis Abeba Police Commission headquarters and is currently renovating the head office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be constructing the building.

Expected to take five years to complete, the construction was started under the supervision of Addis Mebratu Consulting Architects & Engineers, a 21-year-old firm that previously consulted and supervised the construction of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia's Megenagna branch.

Afro-Tsion won the bid to construct the new building six months ago and signed the contract two months ago. The city's Integrated Infrastructure & Construction Permit & Control Authority issued a building permit for the building on March 6, 2019.

The construction of the building will create jobs for 650 people, according to Tesfaye Misganaw, general manager of Afro-Tsion Construction.

"The current cinema will be preserved as a heritage building," said Befekadu Kefelegn, director of public and international relations at the National Theater, which was established in 1956 and currently employs 315 people.

The new building will have a flexible stage that can stretch up to eight additional metres. Upon completion, the building will have a state-of-the-art cinema that can accommodate up to 1,500 people and a museum.

The project concept was developed six years ago and was inaugurated by laying a foundation at a ceremony. But the project was delayed due to boundary issues and a failed bidding process, according to Befekadu.

"These led the project cost to rise from 530 million Br to 1.5 billion Br," Befekadu said.

Due to construction activity at the current premises, some of the offices have moved to a rented building in front of Yobek Building around Senga Tera three weeks ago. The theatre, music and production departments stayed at the current premises, while other offices of the ICT department, the director, deputy director and human resource departments moved to the new building.