The owner of the movie theater complex at Hunt Valley Towne Center is selling the building, where Regal Cinemas will continue to operate the 12-screen cinema under a long-term lease, the real estate broker handling the sale said Tuesday.

The cinema, built in 1998 and owned separately from the rest of the outdoor mall in Hunt Valley, is expected to sell for about $10 million, said James Murphy, executive managing director for Colliers International in New York. Murphy identified the owner as a Connecticut-based institution, which also is selling a movie theater it owns in the Potomac Yard Shopping Center in Alexandria, Va.

"These are very successful theaters in the Regal chain," Murphy said."We hope to have a deal wrapped up around Labor Day. We're getting interest from a spectrum of investors, from regional players to individual investors."

Greenberg Gibbons redeveloped the struggling Hunt Valley Mall in 2005, in a $75 million project that transformed it into an outdoor, Main Street-style center anchored by Wegmans Food Market.

Regal's long-term lease of the 52,000-square-foot theater, with renewals through 2038, should make the property an attractive investment, Murphy said.

"Movie theaters in general are stable retail investments; there is little new development, and competition is limited," Murphy said.