The entrepreneur behind the ambitious regeneration transforming New Brighton has revealed the immediate and long-term vision for the scheme, that could include a monorail - and reintroduce a pier and lido to the famous seaside town.
In an exclusive interview with BusinessLive, Dan Davies has laid out what he wants to do next and in the future - also venting his frustration at Wirral Council, which he said has “forgotten” New Brighton.
As part of a wide-ranging feature on regeneration and the revival of New Brighton back in 2019, BusinessLive spoke to Mr Davies and others about how the famous seaside town was brought back from the brink.
Speaking this week, Mr Davies said he has so far invested over £6m into the project to transform his hometown, through his business Rockpoint Leisure.
The plan is to create a destination for residents and visitors to shop, eat and drink, also offering live events and cultural attractions.
And with several venues now open and thriving around Victoria Road, one of his key goals is to stop big corporations including supermarkets and fast food chains from opening there. It's in a bid to prevent the area from becoming “just like any other type of high street”.
It comes after Rockpoint last week launched its ‘Anti-Super’ Supermarket concept inside the old Co-op building - featuring live music, a bar, recording studio and artisan retailers.
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Mr Davies said he wants to introduce a new “cultural heart” to the town. He explained: “With New Brighton, you've got to look back to the past. You've got to remember the amazing things that we had, and think that we want to try and get some of those things back.
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“But you’ve also got to look to the future and say ‘what can we do that is going to be sustainable?’
“This is not about me, it can't be about one person or one company.
“It can't be about short-termism, this has got to be long-term regeneration that is sustainable - and that in 10 years, you'll still be able to see.
"This is an opportunity to try and give people more choice. Make it a nicer place, a safer place, but also an environment that you can flourish in as a business, as a musician, as an artist, whatever.
"What's important is to get as many places open as possible."
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In terms of immediate next steps for the independents-led scheme, Mr Davies said plans include transforming a former bank into a new Chinese restaurant on Victoria Road, and opening a LGBT bar inside the derelict former Tallulah’s.
That’s as well as adding to the large collection of murals that have been painted on homes and businesses around the area by an array of internationally-renowned street artists.
The displays have of passers-by, visitors and social media over the past few years - and are in a bid to create the biggest, free, open-air street art gallery in the country.
He said: “I think that helps for footfall, and with footfall, businesses that were teetering on the edge suddenly become more sustainable. That allows them to grow.”
Mr Davies' vision for the Victoria Quarter has been inspired in part by various trips to Brooklyn in New York.
In addition to the ‘Anti-Super’ Supermarket, the scheme has so far seen a number of venues open.
Those include bar and restaurant Habibi, the traditional James Atherton pub, and Rockpoint Records - which houses a collection of small businesses including a tattoo artist, barber and coffee shop.
Speaking about the overall, long-term vision for the area, Mr Davies said he hopes to one day reinstate the famous New Brighton Baths, which at their peak in the 1950s attracted some 150,000 people on a Bank Holiday weekend.
The attraction declined in the 1980s and was subsequently closed and put up for sale before being destroyed by a storm. There were hopes of a rebuild during the 2000s that never came off. The site is now occupied by the Marine Point complex, containing a Morrisons, restaurants and a cinema.
A social media campaign launched in 2019 called The People’s Pool aims to create a new lido for the Liverpool City Region.
Similarly, Mr Davies said another ambition is to build a pier at the resort. That would see the seaside town’s first in over 40 years. The famous structure built in the 19th century had included a saloon, refreshment rooms and an orchestra.
Around a century later, it was closed in 1972 and demolished five years after that.
Mr Davies said: “There's a number of distinct neighbourhoods in New Brighton. The promenade is always going to be dominated by big chains, as well as some decent independents.
"And I think that's important. We're not going to knock down Morrisons. So we're stuck with Morrisons - but I think a lido would be good. I think we should have one considering we used to have two.
“I think a pier would also be good. These are going to be a second phase if we can get them off the ground.
“There needs to be things like that here. New Brighton was once the third largest seaside town in the 海角视频. It's now 66th, and that's because there’s nothing to do.”
Other exciting ideas for Rockpoint include installing a new mode of transport to connect New Brighton with the Seacombe and Woodside Ferry Terminals - along the promenade - which is the longest in the 海角视频.
He said: “We've been doing our own master plan and I think working together with the council, we can look at sites that can be developed for things like a lido, and for things like a transportation system from Woodside to Seacombe Ferry, down to New Brighton.
“Before we put a pier back or even talk about doing that, how about getting some footfall down the promenade - so you could walk one way and get a land train or monorail the other way.
“I think that will then start generating business in those forgotten places.”
The entrepreneur said that when he took on the project in 2018, the outlook for New Brighton was "fairly dire".
With a number of local businesses "hanging in there", Mr Davies said he feared if he didn't buy up many of the buildings, they would have been subject to a compulsory purchase order and turned into housing.
He said he’d now like to look at regenerating beyond Marine Point, and up towards The Dips and Leasowe.
"We should have a permanent place for campervans and people who come with holiday homes.
“We should have maybe a little retirement village, with bungalows that look out. There's lots of things that can be done like that. It just needs a little bit of vision and working together," he added.
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Having grown up in New Brighton himself, Mr Davies became chairman of the Institute of Licensing (IoL) in 2015. He will hold the role until 2023.
In 2016, his role saw him represent the IoL at an inquiry by the House of Lords Select Committee, which investigated potential reforms of the Licensing Act. In 2019, he addressed the select committee responsible for looking at the regeneration of seaside towns, with the project in New Brighton highlighted in the report.
But he is perhaps best known for his role as the founder and ex-CEO of CPL - now one of the 海角视频’s leading hospitality and retail learning and development providers.
That role meant working and developing strong links with various multinational companies.
Now, to prevent the Victoria Quarter from becoming “any other type of high street”, he wants to keep supermarket, fast food and coffee giants out of the area - but said he will only be able to achieve that with help from Wirral Council.
He said: “This is actually quite a difficult thing to do, and it's something that we've been doing a lot of thinking about.
“In effect, you often have companies that go and buy up places for brands and then lease it, and you only need a few places on this row to turn into a Costa, Tesco Express or one of the one of the companies that think they are going to be suitable here. That then undermines the model of everything we’re trying to do.
“[Rockpoint] don't want to operate all of the venues and this is not a monopoly. But the reason we're doing it is to make sure we don’t suddenly get a load of the sort of brands that just make it like any other type of high street.
“The biggest problem I see in high streets is that if you were blindfolded and parachuted into 90% of them in the 海角视频, you literally wouldn't know where you were even when you took the blindfold off - because you've got exactly the same offers.
“To keep out the big boys involves us really working hand in hand with the council.
“There's some great people there, but they are under pressure, and it often means we are left to pick up the pieces.”
With Rockpoint contributing to house prices in New Brighton and Wallasey having recorded the biggest rise in asking prices over the past year of any British town or city, Mr Davies said he feels let down by some of the area's wealthier residents, who he has contacted to request investment, but been "ignored".
He said: "If you look in the last 12 months alone, some of those houses around here have had £200,000 added on their value. Now, that's not an insignificant amount. How about just investing a small amount of that to help down here?"
Similarly, Mr Davies feels New Brighton has been “forgotten” by the council and overlooked in favour of areas such as Birkenhead and Liscard - for which new funding announcements have been made in recent years. In the case of Birkenhead, the authority’s 50:50 joint venture with Muse Developments has created a creating up to 3,500 jobs and almost £100m GVA per year.
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Mr Davies said he is not expecting the council to foot the bill for the major regeneration proposals he has made.
But he said the New Brighton scheme is “gift wrapped” and should be given more support and allocated a certain amount of funding.
He said the council is yet to help the scheme with the exception of "four new bins", adding that the Rockpoint team has carried out tasks he said should come under council responsibility - such as clearing fly tipping, painting lamp posts, repairing street signs and planting flowers.
He said: “I think this is such a no-brainer for the council.
“It is incredible that both the Metro Mayor’s office and Wirral Council haven’t been all over this.
“We’ve got proof of concept. This fulfils every single metric that they would measure from jobs, visitor numbers to the overall satisfaction of residents.
“It’s solving problems and building that community spirit back up again, which never left but is battered and bruised.
“This town has always been written off, forgotten about and it’s everywhere else that gets the investment.
“The council can really do some basic stuff here, one of them is get funding for us to continue doing what we’re doing. It shouldn’t be on our toes to do every single thing.”
He said he has only been given “one hour” of time with the council's chief executive in three and a half years. That's compared to the boss of Blackpool Council, who Mr Davies said had travelled to New Brighton - and given “six hours” of his time over a similar period.
Mr Davies said his criticism for the council “isn't all” for the current administration, but urged the current leaders "not to make the same mistakes again" that led to the area becoming run down.
A Wirral Council spokeswoman said: “The council acknowledges the achievements of Rockpoint Leisure in the local area and want to work with them and other partners on a transformational masterplan for New Brighton.
"Council officers and ward members are due to meet with Rockpoint to discuss the town’s continued regeneration and future vision.”