£25m Winter Gardens project under starter’s orders
Work on a new £25m conference centre at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens could start later this year, after the final tranche of funding was allocated in a Government announcement.
A £2.9m successful bid to the Coastal Communities Fund was unveiled today as part of £40m worth of funding in coastal towns across the country, meaning a green light for work to begin on the centre in the autumn, with a view to holding its first conferences in 2019.
The dedicated new build venue will provide modern conferencing facilities including breakout rooms and exhibition spaces, complementing the current rooms such as the Empress Ballroom and the Opera House, which will allow the complex to host up to 7,000 delegates.
The new conference centre is expected to bring major conferencing back to the resort, creating more jobs and boosting the local economy, with the latest news following an announcement in January that the centre had been allocated £15m from the Government’s Growth Deal 3, managed by the Lancashire Local Economic Partnership (LEP).
Cllr Simon Blackburn, leader of Blackpool Council, said: “Today’s announcement is excellent news and is another step forward in turning this conference centre in to a reality.
“Our bids to both the Coastal Communities Fund and the Growth Deal have been extremely strong and I am very glad that both of them have seen the positive impact that this will have on the town, creating more jobs and boosting our local economy.
“Major conferences in Blackpool bring thousands of delegates in the town centre, who in turn spend money in our local shops, restaurants and hotels, helping our businesses thrive and allowing them to take on new workers.
“Now that funding is being allocated and the planning permission granted, I am keen that this work starts as soon as possible and we are already having conversations about attracting major conferences back to the resort ready for its re-opening in 2019.”
The new centre is to be built on the site of the former car park on Leopold Grove with refurbishment works also unveiling the full exterior of the outside of the Empress Ballroom for the first time in years.
Permission to demolish the derelict houses opposite the new conference centre is being sought, while planning permission has already been granted to a private investor to build a quality hotel over the road from the new centre.
Blackpool Council has commissioned the plans from architects Bisset Adams, who previously worked on designing the refurbishment of Central Library in Blackpool, along with Max Fordham Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, Morgan Tucker Civil and Structural Engineers and Right Solution conference consultants.
The brief was to create a high quality contemporary building which respected the historical and architectural significance of the rest of the complex, but which offers innovative solutions to the challenges of twenty first century conferencing, such as security, as well as providing an improved public realm and environmentally friendly build.
