An Ayrshire businessman says he's putting his own neck on the line to transform one of Kilmarnock's most iconic ruins into a trendy food market.
Rishi Magon is preparing to shell out his own cash to radically overhaul the dangerous old town centre cinema to the tune of up to £300,000.
Left to rot for decades, the eyesore structure could become a thriving business once again if proposals to turn the Titchfield Street into a food hub are given the green light.
The grand plans would see the bottom floor of the listed building revamped to accommodate 10 street food traders, a bar and enough seating for 200 foodies.
Dubbed the King's Court, Rishi's firm has owned the building since 1999 and after many, many false dawns, he reckons this new proposal is the best hope the old structure has had since it stopped showing movies.
"We'd be over the moon to get it up and running," Rishi told Ayrshire Live. "It's a beautiful building and it's a shame it's ended up in that state.
"We're looking at least a £200,000 to £300,000 investment at the moment. Building costs have gone through the roof during Covid so our budget is getting thinner and thinner. And because it's a building at risk we've had issues getting funding so this is almost all personal funds I'm using. So i'm putting my personal neck on the line here.
"This use seems more practical and because there's nothing like this in the area we're confident it'll be a business at last."
With a background in property and retail, the Kilwinning native is determined to make the new plan work.
And the finished product could end up looking like the popular Glasgow street food markets — like The Dockyard Social, The Big Feed, and Platform — and could prove to be a major draw to the town and the Ayrshire region.
False starts have seen numerous ideas dreamed up for the old forlorn ABC cinema but none have yet to materialise
"I used to do street food before lockdown and there are a few street food markets in and around Glasgow," Rishi added.
"I've owned that building for a while and we've been struggling for a potential use for the building for years and I just thought there's nothing like a food market in this area.
"We've owned it since 1999 and we've been in a lot of failed talks with the council during that time; whether that's getting it refurbished or the council were looking to buy it a few times and that fell through."
If plans are approved the food market would operate across weekends initially with hopes of drawing a larger foodie audience to the town.
Rishi said: "We've got provisions for at least 10 food traders and a bar and seating capacity for 200 people on the ground floor.
"We've got someone doing Indian snacks and we've got wood-fired pizza guy too.
"We haven't really been advertising it because we're still going through the planning process. We've been working with the planning department very closely on it because it's a listed building.
"We're going to change the traders every month and the benefit is that we can offer a new range food for the people of Kilmarnock and those coming from outwith the area.
"When we initially start it'll run on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and we'll see how the response is."
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