Red carpet cinema sold

The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) of Ireland has sold off London’s famous Odeon cinema on Leicester Square. The cinema has hosted more premiers and had more stars grace its red carpet than pieces of popcorn in a super large carton. But glitz and glamour won’t stop because of the sale, as one of the smartest hotel chains in the world, the Raddission Edwardian have snapped up the unique property faster than you can say Harry Potter.

The Odeon Leicester Square is the latest in a string of UK disposals by NAMA as it seeks to shed almost £74bn of toxic property loans. The Radisson Edwardian hotel group is thought to have bought the property paying close to a whopping £100M.

NAMA took the site off three Irish property investors – Pat Chesser, Pat Whelan and Paul Hanby. The trio bought the cinema in 2006 for £28m using loans from the ill fated and over extended Anglo Irish Bank, one of the banks at the centre of Ireland’s economic crisis.

NAMA appointed receivers to the company co-owned by Mr Whelan and Mr Chesser- Steamboat Developments Lt, on March 25th 2011. The Irish investors had got planning permission for an extensive overhaul of the site. This would have seen the existing buildings demolished to make way for a two-screen cinema, a 245-bedroom hotel, 33 apartments and four restaurants.

Peter Burns of CBRE, which was joint agent on the site with Knight Frank, said it is a very rare occurrence to have a property in central London with such a large development opportunity available.

He said, ‘Sites like these don’t come around more than every 10 years or so and it is a really exciting opportunity for building a valuable project in the heart of London.’

Who’ve you seen on the famous red carpet?