Thursday, October 21, 2021

News: Rotherham bingo hall up for auction

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A prominent building in Rotherham town centre is set to go under the hammer, again.

Rothbiz reported in May that Mecca Bingo had confirmed that its venue on Corporation Street was closing permanently.

The Rank Group, which owns Mecca, has seen venues closed during the Covid pandemic and posted much reduced revenues.

The building, which was previously a cinema was due to go up for auction twice in 2018 with a guide price of £875,000 - £925,000 and then £800,000 but the lots were withdrawn twice.

The property did sell at auction in 2019 for £575,000.

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Now Network Auctions is advertising the lot for sale at its online auction on October 21. Now with a guide price of £390,000, the freehold of the 25,833 sq ft building is described as a having "potential for commercial / institutional / religious use and residential development subject to planning."

Indeed, Rothbiz reported in June that an application had been submitted to knock the building down and in its place, erect a residential building consisting of 45 dwellings and three ground floor commercial units.

The art deco building, which originally opened in December 1934 as the Regal Cinema, is not listed and planning documents from Sunshine Homes Ltd explained that: "The initial intention was to explore options for a residential conversion of the existing building, however having assessed these options in detail it was clear that a conversion was simply not a viable proposal. As such it was concluded that the only real option was for a new build approach."

The site is adjacent to the Forge Island regeneration scheme anchored by a cinema and hotel. Residential use has been proposed on surrounding land in the later stages of the scheme.

Rotherham Council is targeting Corporation Street in its regeneration plans.

Images: Network Auctions

7 comments:

Tom,  October 21, 2021 at 2:28 PM  

The lot was withdrawn before going to auction.

Anonymous,  October 21, 2021 at 2:39 PM  

It would make a good replacement for the civic theatre!

Anonymous,  October 21, 2021 at 3:37 PM  

Could still be made into a 'proper' accessible theatre.... If RMBC were not so hell bent on demolition.

old git October 21, 2021 at 5:03 PM  

how about turning it into a cinema?

Anonymous,  October 21, 2021 at 5:26 PM  

Are RMBC going to knock it down and then build a new cinema?
If this one couldn't make money, why should another?

Anonymous,  October 22, 2021 at 9:31 PM  

New cinema on forge island as nothing to do with council.Private company from Ireland I believe.

SK,  October 28, 2021 at 1:25 PM  

Yes I thought the same thing.

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