Talks are due to begin with investors and potential commercial tenants as plans take shape for a £4million transformation of Plymouth’s former Millennium nightclub and cinema building into a major music venue.
Work has already begun to shore up and revamp the massive pile, in the city’s famous Union Street, after it was .
, set up and run by people in the local Stonehouse community, has fixed the gigantic derelict building’s leaky roof and carried out other repairs.
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It is aiming to have some events take place inside the block, at one time earmarked for a GOD TV studio, in mid-2021 – coronavirus restrictions permitting.
There are even plans to install equipment to enable people to tap into free wifi in Union Street and the residential areas nearby.
But the ultimate aim is to turn the into a 1,300-capacity music and entertainment venue, with bars and cafes around the edge of the ground floor.
No time frame has been out on the proposal, but Nudge hopes to advance it piecemeal as it has done with other buildings it has acquired in the Union Street area: Union Corner, the Clipper and the Plot.
Nudge and paid £800,000 for the freehold of the site in September 2020 after a year-long negotiation with its owner.
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At one time the two organisations were vying to buy the pile but decided to pool resources and purchase it with a 50/50 split.
Nudge’s £400,000 was provided by a grant from Power to Change, an independent trust that supports community businesses, and an interest-free loan from The Rank Foundation, a charitable body that supports enterprises.
Nudge directors are now seeking further funds to develop the tumbledown edifice. Eat Work Art, which has already renovated run-down buildings in London and Plymouth, is providing £2million, with the remaining £2million to be raised by Nudge.
It is preparing a community share offer, having run a similar and successful scheme to fund renovation of the former Clipper pub.
But it is also looking to hear from potential investors and commercial operators who want to inject financial capital or rent space.
Hannah Sloggett, Nudge director, said talks with potential funders have begun and added: “We have an outline plan. But we don’t want to raise expectations and need to give ourselves time to work out who is available to us and who wants commercial space on the ground floor and who sees themselves performing there.
“We need to work out which organisations and people will be part of bringing this building back to use. That will happen this year. We will also start the share offer. That will inform how we get the funding and raise finance.”
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Wendy Hart, also a Nudge director, added: “We would like to think there are investors interested in social and local investment. They are the people we want to hear from, people that want to invest, with strong social values and who want to make a difference to their area.£
Miss Hart said the company had been eyeing up the building since the days when it was leased to GOD TV.
She said it’s strategic position, on the city centre end of Union Street, near planned developments at Colin Campbell Court and the Millbay Boulevard, and that it had been in effect disused for 15 years since it stopped being a nightclub, meant it was ripe for development.
She said that as commercial operators had not come forward it was key that a business that could develop it and support the community took it on.
“We had wanted it for three and a half years, we were looking at it when we started Nudge,” she said. “GOD TV was talking to us when they wanted to get out of their lease and find another use for the building.”
Mrs Sloggett said: “If there had been a private investment opportunity people would be doing it. So it is worth it to bring it back to use and contribute to the community.”
She said work had begun already to “fix leaks and get the toilets working, basic stuff”, with a structural engineer pronouncing the building sound, and added: “We are getting a feel for it.”
But she added: “We have not talked about a (completion) date. With our other buildings we have made improvements, seen how it went, made more. You can spend as much as you like on a building. It’s about what’s value for money.
“But we will be having events there in the summer, and some commercial space let, if we are allowed to, and then see how it develops.
“We are looking for two years of ‘meanwhile’ use, with people coming in an experimenting in the space. We will start in February, but as soon as we are allowed to we will be getting people in and let people look around.”
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Miss Hart said the long-term aim was to turn the former cinema auditorium, which GOD TV had wanted as a studio for live-audience televised evangelism, into a music venue holding 1,300 people, and then think about other uses.
“We are thinking about the front part of the building,” she said. “What sort of uses can go in the ground floor, and for the big windows outside the auditorium, like a bar and cafe.”
The plan is to use local firms and individuals as much as possible during the renovation – and by local, Nudge means local to Stonehouse.
For previous projects 95% of the budget was spent in Plymouth, with 57% spent within a mile of the development.
“We want to use small businesses and max the economic and social value within a mile,” said Mrs Sloggett.
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The building began life as The Gaumont Palace cinema in 1931, and later was one of Union Street's biggest and busiest nightclubs during the 1980s and 1990s, going under names such as Blondz, the Warehouse and Millennium.
It close in the early 2000s and was later leased to GOD TV, which started reconstruction work but then pulled operations from the city.
Mrs Sloggett said features and memorabilia form its days as a moviehouse and dance hall were being uncovered, and it is hoped to preserve them.
“There are original bits from the 1930s and fittings from when it was a nightclub,” she said. “We are pealing though the layers and discovering some special things.”
And as for a name?
“We don’t know,” said Miss Hart. “We thought a name would come forward for the Clipper, but it remained the Clipper.”