€3.5m sought for seven-screen cinema complex in Stillorgan

The successful Odeon Cinema in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, is to be offered for sale as an investment at more than €3.5 million.

The purchaser will get a net initial return of 8.8 per cent after acquisition costs are taken into account.

The seven screens can be watched at any one time by up to 842 patrons and have proved an extremely popular attraction in the area over the years.

The complex is let to Ashbourne Cinemas Ltd, a subsidiary of UCI, which is currently paying an annual rent of €325,000 under a lease which has 22 years to run.

Ireland's first-ever Ormonde Cinema opened for business in Stillorgan in 1954.

Upgrading
The building was demolished in the late 1970s and was replaced by the present cinema.

It was eventually upgraded in 2011, initially trading as UCI and later as Odeon. Two of the screens are located on the ground floor while the remaining five are at basement level.

The entrance lobby includes a coffee shop and other standard concessions. The upper floor is used as projection rooms and offices.

Dessie Kilkenny of Savills, who is advising Odeon, said the sale was coming at a time when specialist investors were looking for opportunities to get involved in the thriving leisure market. He expected an early sale of the Stillorgan facility because of its location, the attractive yield and the lengthy unexpired term of the lease.

The Odeon will be the second sale of a cinema investment in Dublin this year. A UK company recently paid more than €23 million for the Cineworld on Parnell Street in Dublin city centre.

The initial yield is understood to have been about 8 per cent.