Fresh doubt over city's historic cinema as bidder walks away

THE future of a historic cinema building in Edinburgh has been thrown into fresh doubt after the only serious bidder to buy it walked away from the deal.

A church group which has spent almost a year trying to buy the former Odeon, in the Southside, has pulled out of talks with its long-time owner after it refused to lower its asking price.

Edinburgh developer Duddingston, which paid about 2 million for the art deco building eight years ago, has been demanding 2.9m for the site, which has lain virtually unused in that time.

But the Elim Pentecostal Church bid less than half that when the Clerk Street building was put on the market last year.

The church bid 1.45m for the site earlier this year, only for it to be rejected by Duddingston House Properties, which also received a bid of around 600,000 from a group of local artists.