A bid to transform Plymouth’s dilapidated former Millennium nightclub and cinema building into a music venue and business hub only needs £17,000 to hit a vital fundraising target - but has just a few hours left to raise the cash.
With the clock ticking on a Crowdfunder appeal, a last-minute plea has been made by Nudge Community Builders, the social enterprise which bought the vast Union Street building in 2020, for potential investors to step forward.
A community share offer, launched in October 2021, has raised £268,730 from 378 investors. But with the appeal closing at 11.59pm today (Monday, December 20), Nudge only has a few hours left to hit its target of £285,000.
Plymouth's Millennium building redevelopment saga
The Crowdfunder page can be found here:
If it meets the target work will start to transform the ground floor of the building in early 2022, with tenant businesses already lining up to move in.
But if the sum is not met then those who have pledged to buy shares so far will receive their money back and Nudge will have to go back to the drawing board.
However, Hannah Sloggett, director and cofounder of Nudge Community Builders, is confident Plymouth citizens will rise to the challenge and the target sum will be met.
But she is urging them to make an investment now, which can be from as little as £50 and will receive a 3.6% return, and help with the rebirth of one of Plymouth’s best known, but most in need of renovation, buildings.
“We have already had a huge amount of grass-roots support,” she said. “So it would be good for anyone that thinks this should be happening in Union Street to support it.”
Mrs Sloggett said shares in the ambitious project would make a good Christmas present and urged: “We need people to step up for this final push. We know there are still a lot of people in the city that are keen to invest and if they are in that position they can help make something really special happen.
“If people don’t want to invest in national or international companies, they can invest in something that is happening here in Plymouth.”
Nudge is working with partners at London-based workspace developer Eat Work Art, which has already renovated run-down buildings in London and Plymouth, to bring the enormous former cinema and nightclub back into use.
Nudge said cash from the community share investment would go towards having the ground floor of the gigantic pile in use by 2022 with the first businesses potentially operating from the building by the middle of the year as work continues on creating a music venue in the main auditorium. The overall project could cost up to £4m.
The share offer went live in October and has attracted a range of large- and small-scale investors. In November the Community Shares Booster Programme, run by Co-operatives Ƶ, pledged £100,000, and as recently as last week Plymouth City Council decided to purchase £30,000 of shares.
Hundreds of individual investors have backed the project too, with donations from the minimum £50 and some running into thousands of pounds.
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Mrs Sloggett said the appeal, on the Crowdfunder platform, had been “challenging” but said she had been delighted with the response. She said that if the target is met before the deadline, all investors will receive a Christmas card from Nudge, and, of course, a share certificate and an invite to visit the building in the new year.
“And from then on they will be involved in what is happening,” she said. “In the new year we would push ahead with the ground floor - we have businesses already waiting to come in and that would be guaranteed income for shareholders. But if we don’t reach the target everyone gets their money back. So the next few hours are key.”
