The Edinburgh Filmhouse has been sold in a deal reportedly worth £2.65m.
Last October, the Centre for the Moving Image - which ran the Filmhouses in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, as well as the Edinburgh International Film Festival - filed for administration, citing a "perfect storm" of rising costs and reduced trade due to the pandemic and cost-of-living-crisis.
Administrators FRP Advisory instructed Savills to sell the historic building at 88 Lothian Road, with a closing date for offers of 7 December.
The owner of London’s Prince Charles Cinema was confirmed as a bidder, but has since been reported to have been rejected as part of the process.
A PR representative for the administrators confirmed that the Filmhouse building has been sold, but did not confirm who the buyer was.
However, The Scotsman has reported that Caledonian Heritable - owners of The Dome, Ryan's Bar and The Theatre Royal in Edinburgh - are now the new owners of the site, with talks underway over the cinema's future.
The paper stated that the Edinburgh-based company is said in negotiations with the Scottish Government, its Screen Scotland agency and the city council over the possibility of the cinema reopening soon.
It is hoped the firm will agree to lease the building to a new publicly-funded operator.
The property, originally constructed in 1830, extends over ground, mezzanine and first floors, comprising 20,068 sq ft in total.
The B-listed Georgian sandstone former church has retained its period features, including a 12-panel segmental ceiling in what is currently Cinema One. There are two further cinema spaces, along with the Film Guild clubroom, box office, café, bar and kitchens.
A crowdfunding campaign organised by a group of former senior staff to save the Filmhouse was targeting £2m - the apparent guide price - to bid for the building, but fell short of its goal.
In January, councillors rejected a bid by the administrators to transfer the building’s licence, with another bidder, the Signature Pub Group, blaming this for scrapping its offer.
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