Cork’s Kino arthouse cinema to close over debt to architects

An independent arthouse cinema is to close next month after creditors initiated High Court proceedings to recover more than €50,000 owed to them for design work. Mick Hannigan, who owns the Kino Cinema in Cork, confirmed yesterday he has decided to close the cinema after being served this week with High Court papers over the debt which he owes to a firm of architects.

Mr Hannigan said the debt arose from a plan he developed in 2003 to expand the 188-seat single-screen cinema into a three-screen facility with a total capacity of some 360 seats.

“We had got a grant of €750,000 from the Arts Council and the Film Board for the project which was costing around €3 million in total. I had managed to secure substantial borrowings but we were still left with a shortfall of around €1 million,” he explained.

“Because of that shortfall, we were unable to proceed with the work so we never drew down the grant money but . . . we had to do a considerable amount of preparatory work including getting a design done and that’s where the debt stems from.

The Irish Times