On the screen, an all too surprising happy ending can spoil the drama, but in real life it is all the more welcome: Cinema buffs in the entire south of Munich can breathe a sigh of relief now that the projectors in the Solln cinema are going to continue: The plans for the reconstruction of the cinema with its two Halls and 294 seats are off the table after the owner, Sedlmayr Haus und Gewerbebau GmbH, has withdrawn from the renovation plans at Sollner Strasse 43a and has decided to continue operating the cinema.
The real estate company, not a foreign investor, but emerged from the real estate division of the Spaten brewery, had initially applied for the cinema to be converted into seven apartments and a shop. The course change now came at the instigation of the honorary chairman of the supervisory board and former managing director Jobst Kayser-Eichberg, who had already headed the Spaten-Franziskaner brewing company as managing partner in the 80s and 90s, long before the brewing and real estate business was separated . As Kayser-Eichberg explains to the SZ, employees of the company “pushed ahead” with the application for a change of use, probably without his knowledge, assuming that the cinema had no economic future.
Of course, according to Kayser-Eichberg, two lockdowns and the uncertainty of the audience had added to the cinema and resulted in loss of rent. For the future, however, the real estate manager sees his ambitious and at the same time commercially successful program well positioned, which he convinced himself of in discussions with Cornelia Green, who represents the cinema operator Omaha Film GmbH. Tenants and landlords could have agreed beforehand on reductions and decrees during the lockdown, and they are on a “positive track” until the crisis will hopefully end soon.
In principle, Kayser-Eichberg defends the approach of examining other usage options for the building hidden behind the S-Bahn station, which – industrial on the outside, Art Deco on the inside – adds an urban touch to the garden city environment. However, this would not necessarily have required a drafted building application. In any case, he would not have had anything against an application for a preliminary decision, according to the Sedlmayr senior boss, who admits that something “stupid” had simply happened in his company due to internal communication breakdowns.
Kaiser-Eichberg indicates that he intervened not only out of personal sympathy for the cinema, but also under the impression of public reactions and initiatives, from the local district committee to the city council. There the parliamentary groups of SPD / Volt and Greens / Pink List had asked the planning and culture department a week ago to approach the owner. The FDP Munich-South and the citizens’ assembly in the 19th district, which comprises a total of five districts with 100,000 inhabitants, provided additional support. The catchment area of the cinema extends much further into the city and out into the southern surrounding area.
The Sollner already knew this 30 years ago and prevented the end of the art-house cinema “Studio Solln”, which had lost its domicile due to asbestos pollution and could be continued in its current form from 1994 onwards. There is just as much room for high-quality film food as the “Sollner Film Talk” and other series of events, but also the lucrative mainstream. The fact that many Munich residents are currently ending their forced abstinence from the cinema with the new Bond flick “No Time to Die” fits in with the industry’s burgeoning hope.