The first phase of the restoration of Plymouth’s Grade 1 listed Melville building is scheduled to be completed by mid-2022 with new occupiers lining up to join restaurant Hub Box and the Everyman cinema.
Bosses at Urban Splash, the regeneration specialist which has been developing Plymouth’s Royal William Yard for nearly 20 years, said work to fit out the Hub Box restaurant is scheduled to begin in early 2022.
And Everyman Media Group Plc, which is predicting a £7m profit for 2021 after audiences flocked back to picture houses, is due to begin fitting out its triple screen boutique cinema in the yard at Easter 2022. It means the cinema should be on schedule for the curtain to go up in late summer.
Urban Splash in the news
Meanwhile, negotiations are ongoing with a restaurateur, offering a cuisine not already found in Plymouth, about opening in one of three ground-floor retail/hospitality units currently unclaimed.
And a large professional services firm is in talks about moving into office space on the first and second floors of the block. It would neighbour space already earmarked for co-working company BLOCK, which is taking 17,000sq ft across two floors and will also create a coffee shop, wine bar and business lounge, which users can join in the way people use airport business lounges.
It means just two ground floor retail/restaurant units, on the right hand side of the building facing the Factory Cooperage, are currently totally unspoken for in the first phase of the restoration. Urban Splash is keen to hear from any potential tenants.
Construction work is ongoing at the building, centrepiece of the former naval victualling yard, with atelierBUILD overseeing a hive of activity.
It has been renovating the 19th Century pile, characterised by its prominent clock tower, for Urban Splash, working alongside partners Ward Williams Associates and Gillespie Yunnie Architects.
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Construction started in 2019 and aside from renovating the Victorian building crews are also installing new features, such as doors and staircases, to transform the historic edifice into a business and consumer hub.
It is now planned for the Phase One spaces to be handed to the occupiers for fit out between January and the end of March 2022, with phased openings from March to July, meaning the first phase should be fully open by the summer.
Emily Handslip, commercial director at Urban Splash, said: “In Phase One we are 90% let or under offer, so there are only two units left on the ground floor for retail or restaurants and I would love to see independent retailers or independent restaurants, or a cookery school, in there. We are here to bring something new to the city, new occupiers, exciting, vibrant things.”
She said the Melville project has been ongoing for five years, including the funding, design and planning phases. Once Phase One is complete, work will start on the second phase of the restoration, which will look at the rear and left hand side of the quadrangle, opposite the New Cooperage.
Design work is already under way with Urban Splash keen to hear from potential occupiers for the ground floor, such as independent retailers, arts and crafts producers, textile and ceramics creators, and hospitality operators.
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Mrs Handslip said Urban Splash was keen to attract businesses that would encourage visitors to stay longer at the yard, but it also had a brief to help independents.
“It’s at the heart of Urban Splash,” she said. “We support independents and want to work alongside creative talent. I want people to come and talk to me. The next stage is going to be exciting.”
Plymouth's Royal William Yard in the news...