It is understood that Northern Ireland developer Adam Armstrong is in advanced talks to buy the 200,000 sq ft complex from the Sheridan Group chaired by Peter Curistan. The Odyssey Pavilion includes restaurants, nightclubs, a 3,200-seater cinema multiplex, an Imax cinema, 10-pin bowling and a family entertainment centre.

The Pavilion was built as the private sector element of Belfast's Millennium Project, which also included the Odyssey Arena that is both a concert venue and home to the Belfast Giants ice hockey team. The Sheridan Group also has a preferential option on two neighbouring riverfront sites, and is in talks with Laganside on getting preferred developer status for a development expected to cost nearly 90m.

If the Pavilion deal goes ahead, it will be the latest in a string of recent projects for Armstrong's Mar Properties.

Earlier this month, Mar paid 18.5m to buy six well-known pubs, including The Hillside Inn in Hillsborough, from the Carmichael Group in Northern Ireland's biggest licensed premises deal so far this year.

Armstrong's current development projects include the 26-storey, 65m Obel building that will house a 144-bedroom and 146 apartments.

With boxer Barry McGuigan's former manager Barney Eastwood, he is planning a 155m retail and commercial park in Newtownards, Co Down.

Armstrong is also planning his first shopping centre development, Queen's Parade in Bangor, Co Down, and recently spent 73m on a tract of Housing Executive land outside Newtownards.

Farther afield, Gibraltarbased Armstrong this year raised his stake in Blackpool Airport to 95% and unveiled a 3m refurbishment.

The airport, which is on 500 acres, is part a property play, but Armstrong has also been working to boost traffic.

Last week's shortlisting of Blackpool for the North West region super-casino licence up for grabs in the UK will have been welcome news.

Curistan made unwelcome headlines in February when he rejected allegations made under parliamentary privilege in the House of Commons by DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson that his businesses were linked to IRA "dirty money". Belfast-born Curistan's co-director in a number of his companies is former Sinn Fein treasurer Des Mackin.

Curistan, who founded the Sheridan Group in 1989, built his first cinema on the Dublin Road in Belfast and later developed Dublin's Parnell Centre, said he had been "severely damaged" by Robinson's allegations.