Point to get cinema 'fit for world premieres'

DUBLIN WILL have a new cinema complex capable of hosting the world premieres of major films, developer Harry Crosbie has said.

Mr Crosbie has signed a deal with Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group, Europe’s largest cinema operator, to locate the cinema in the Point Village opposite the O2 and adjacent to the Gibson Hotel.

The six-screen multiplex has already been built at a cost of €25 million and will cost a further €7 million to refurbish. It will be known as Point Pictures.

Odeon & UCI said it was in discussions to include an Imax screen as part of the development.

The cinema is due to open in late October. Mr Crosbie said Dublin had, until now, lacked a venue capable of hosting major premieres because existing cinemas required too many traffic restrictions.

He envisaged that searchlights on top of the buildings surrounding Point Square would recreate the type of premieres more commonly seen in Hollywood, where thousands of people can congregate and limousines can move in and out without difficulty.

Scenes of stars arriving will be broadcast on a big screen. “It will look fabulous on television,” Mr Crosbie said.

In a statement, Odeon & UCI chief operating officer Roger Harris described the Point Village as a “perfect cinema site” and said he envisaged building on the “huge success” of the O2.

Mr Crosbie said the cinema would create 100 jobs immediately and he was looking for food retailers for the units which have been built around the cinema.

He said he hoped the Point Village would employ 1,000 people within two years if retailers could be persuaded to locate there.

“We’re going to try to turn the corner from pessimism to optimism. Somebody has got to find a bottom to the property market and we intend to try,” he said.

Mr Crosbie said the days when property developers could demand premiums for rents and insurance companies could get guaranteed rates of return for investors were “past and gone forever”.

He promised to work with interested parties to negotiate rents they could afford.

“We’re telling small businesses that we know how difficult things are. There is no market. We are going to reinvent the market. It is going to take at last two years to get this thing up and running,” he said.

“If somebody comes in and buys into the vision, we will make deals that make it work for them.”

Preliminary census data published yesterday show the population of the docklands area is the fastest growing in the State, increasing by 85 per cent from 3,690 to 6,843 people between 2006 and 2011.

Mr Crosbie also said he intended to instigate legal proceedings against Dunnes Stores next week in the High Court.

He alleged the company had reneged on commitments which he said it made last year to locate an anchor tenant store in the Point Village.