The Leicester Square Odeon, one of London's most famous cinemas and host of a laundry list of international film premiers, could soon showcase its last film. But it's not closing down, per se; it's being reinvented as a hotel. That's right. Radission Edwardian has bought the movie house from Irish debt company National Asset Management Agency, for an undisclosed sum.
Word is there is already planning permission to develop the site into a 245-room hotel with five restaurants and 33 apartments. Avid moviegoers may not have to be so sad: A two-screen cinema could be retained.
Radisson described the purchase as "another jewel in the crown." The company already has 12 properties in London and two outside the capital. Director Robert Morley said: "The purchase of this site is one of the most important acquisitions for London."
"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," Peter Burns of CBRE, told The Financial Times.
The sale of the Odeon Leicester Square, which boasts the single largest screen in the UK, is part of an ongoing redesign and redevelopment of Leicester Square.