Church group abandons its effort to buy former Odeon cinema

ONE of three groups bidding to buy the former Odeon Cinema building has ended its interest after the site owner refused to lower its asking price.

Elim Trust Corporation, an arm of a Pentecostal church group, had offered 1.45 million - just under half sale value - to owner Duddingston House Properties (DHP) with the aim of turning the auditorium into a church and rentable space, with community venue, theatre, cinema, coffee shop and flats.

Elim Pentecostal Church was thought to be a serious contender to buy the venue having already restored the Coronet Cinema, which is still running in London's Notting Hill as a commercial picturehouse. Its withdrawal has thrown the fate of the Clerk Street cinema into fresh doubt.

Elim declined to comment on the reason for pulling out.

The other interested parties are The New Victoria group, which bid 600,000 with hopes of retaining the cinema and providing a multi-use arts venue and Elim's project manager, Alan Scobie, who submitted a private bid for 1.6m to turn the auditorium into a multi-purpose events venue.

DHP said the Art Deco, B-listed auditorium is too large and inflexible to pay its way if brought back into use and the firm had applied for listed building consent to demolish the theatre. It planned to turn it into a hotel block and restore the existing facade, lobby, restaurant and crush hall.

However local campaigners and rival developers, have insisted that the building could and should be fully restored as part of a viable business.

In May last year the Scottish Government Reporter ordered a fresh sales push for the building in the hope of finding someone who would restore and operate it without any demolition. So far, no one has meet the asking price.

A spokesman for Duddingston House Properties said: "As required by the Scottish Government Reporter, a full re-marketing exercise was entered into The building was marketed at a price for an agreed period of time in order to see if there were any credible and viable restoring purchasers.

"There has been no offer which achieves even 50 per cent of the "red-book" valuation of the property.

"No bidders were prepared to meet a discounted price of 2.5m, no bidders seeking to purchase were prepared to enter into negotiations regarding leasing the building. One of the offers was for less than a quarter of the valuation, and the bidder could provide no evidence of funding and no business plan.

"Elim, which proposed a price of less than half of the valuation, has now formally ended its interest. There are severe doubts as to whether a third bid is realistic and credible.

"The bidding process has clearly demonstrated first of all that there is no restoring purchaser, and second that those who have submitted bids are not prepared to come close to matching the independent valuation."