THE old Edinburgh Filmhouse building has been sold for £2.65 million.
The B-listed cinema was shut in October after its parent company - the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) - went into administration.
A total of 102 jobs were axed as a result.
The building - originally used as a church before it was a cinema - has now been sold by administrators but they have not confirmed the identity of the new owners.
The Scotsman reported that the successful bidder is pub operator Caledonian Heritable, which owns the city's Theatre Royal.
A Companies House creditors report said that the highest offer from a commercial bidder had been £1m more than was being offered by what it described as cultural bidders.
It is understood there were 14 bids for the Lothian Road property, which was built in 1830.
A bid made by the team behind the Prince Charles Cinema in London was unsuccessful at the end of last year.
In February, administrators reassessed the options after an application to restore the property's alcohol license proved unsuccessful.
It said: "We remained keen to explore a cultural bid and engaged significantly with Creative Scotland as the funding body for all cultural bidders.
"Although a further bid was received from a culturally-motivated bidder, it was not at a sufficient level and would not have led to a full recovery to the company's creditors.
"Having reviewed options, we decided the right course of action was to pursue a sale on an unconditional basis with a commercial bidder."
CMI said a "perfect storm" of issues had led to the closure of the Filmhouse, including increased energy costs, the ongoing impact of the pandemic on visitor numbers, and the cost of living crisis.
A petition to save the Filmhouse and keep it operating as a cinema had garnered nearly 25,000 signatures back in December.
