THERE will be another chance to buy the former Robins Cinema this week as it goes back up for auction.

An initial chance to purchase the property was provided at auction last month and, after no suitable buyer came forward, it will go back under the hammer on Thursday.

The East Port premises will be up for a reduced starting bid of £195,000 – the starting bid last time out was £225,000 – and Future Property Auctions are still confident that a buyer can be found.

Its Operations Director, Darryl Cormack, explained: "In the past, we would have had a live auction which we used to hold every six weeks. We would give people three auctions before a serious conversation about prices.

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"These days, we have auctions every two weeks so they have been to one auction and not sold and will go to another and potentially another one.

"It takes a while to get somebody who is serious to buy."

Mr Cormack said they have had interest in the old cinema and the High Street building which houses WH Smith which will also re-appear at auction.

"We gauge this, if it is residential, by the level of the home report," he added. "For commercial properties it is the legal packs. So, in other words, it is only people showing enough interest in wanting the legal documents.

"There will always be interest in our properties and we have to wait for that right person to buy it."

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The old Robins Cinema building first opened up in 1913 and was a unique 'reverse cinema' with the audience entering from the side of the screen.

It became an independent in 1982 as 'The Orient Express' and was then acquired by Robins Cinemas Ltd and reopened in October 1992, after a short closure, with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

The opening of the Odeon complex on the Fife Leisure Park in 2000 spelled the beginning of the end for the Robins and it shut its doors in the same year.

The building controversially opened back up in 2007 as lap-dancing club Private Eyes. At the time, the then local MP, Willie Rennie, called it "sleazy, so-called entertainment" and told the club to "pack up and go home".

Private Eyes closed in 2011 and the building became an eighties-themed bar, Club Tropicana, which also later shut.

An idea to reopen the cinema as a community facility was later mooted by the Dunfermline Regeneration Trust however their plans were shelved when similar plans for the Alhambra Theatre were revealed.

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The property listing says the "substantial building" offers accommodation over four floors and has access off James Street and East Port.

There's potential for restaurant or bar use – subject to the relevant consents – while the building holds an adult entertainment license.

It adds: "Substantial former cinema building which has been comprehensively developed. Flexible space with two street frontages. The property holds a full premises license from Fife Licensing Board.

An auction where the cinema and the WH Smith premises – which courts a starting bid price of £495,000 – will be held on Thursday with another one planned for October 17.