The Closing of the Lighthouse Cinema

H

horusd

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One of Dublin's finest cultural spaces, the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield has been forced to close, as the Landlord wanted to double the rent, and wasn't prepared to negotiate. We can save banks, and developers, but our culture can go to pot. 20 people also lost their jobs. I'm heart-sick about this.
 
+1 I don't understand the logic, it will surely cost €200,000 to provide unemployment benefit for the 20 staff for a year and yet this fantastic facility is being closed because the landlord wants another €100,000 in rent per annum. I think the lack of imagination in this country is a much greater problem than the lack of money.
 
Also, its a cinema. Who else does the landlord think he is going to be able to rent it to ?

The only potential tenants are the people prepared to run an art house cinema, which cannot survive unless the cost base is at an acceptable level.

The landlord has a choice of the current rent, or no rent, there is not other potential tenant willing to pay more.

Very sad day,
 
I liked it a lot too, but I always doubted its finanical viability and worried that it was just taking revenue from the IFI. It's quite large, never seemed as busy as the IFI but seemed to have a lot more staff than customers. I doubt if the IFI would have 20 full time staff excluding the restaurant?

It got a grant of 1.75 million and has been open for less than 3 years. If it's already burnt that when it was paying 100k in rent, then sadly I don't think a rent increase is the real issue. TBH I think the art council funding should come with a bit more enterprise ireland type financial planning / business case analysis.
 
Several other businesses in Smithfield have closed recently - the place is becoming a ghost town.
 
I worked in Smithfield abut 10 years ago. I remember seeing the plans for what Smithfield Square was supposed to look like. An upmarket version of Temple Bar was how it was refered to then.
 
Smithfield is crying out for something different. Forget pubs, and cinemas. The thing is that it already has a version of something that Dublin needs badly. A proper market. It just needs to be properly managed and made attractive. And I not talking about a horse market either. That Dublin doesn't have it's own version of the English market in Cork is a disgrace.
 
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