CHENNAI: One of the city’s old and long standing theatre complexes, ‘Udhayam’ centrally located at Ashok Nagar is up for sale.
Real estate services firm Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj has invited bids for the e-auction after receiving the Madras High Court order to conduct the sale.
The last date for submission of the expression of interest (EoI) along with the participation deposit has been fixed as April 22, with the date of the e-auction to be conducted on April 29, 2009.
“The participation deposit will be Rs 25 lakhs with the reserve price for the property fixed at Rs 29 crore based on the guideline value,” S Venkat Krishnan of the Land Department of Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj told The New Indian Express.
“Udhayam was the second biggest theatre complex in Chennai and generated good revenue every month. But with dissensions brewing among the theatre’s 52 shareholders over the sale of property and its price, the cinema complex had to be put on the block,” said Krishnan.
The complex situated on 1.31 acres of land (23.8 grounds) has four running theatres-Udhayam, Suriyan, Chandran and Mini Udhayam.
A reserve price of Rs 100 crore had been earlier fixed for the bid of the property through e-auction in February but since it received only one bid, the reserve price had to be downsized to Rs 29 crore.
A Receiver appointed by the Madras High Court is conducting the daily operations of the theatre complex.
Industry experts said that Udhayam was a prime property located in south Chennai with a market value of Rs 4 crore per ground. The theatre complex still attracted huge footfall with no such complex nearby.
The Udhayam theatre complex has been on the auction block for over two years now, according to Krishnan. Founded by six brothers in the early eighties, it was a family-run business, which ran into roadblocks because of greed for property.
