Four industry leading firms revealed to drive forward new Southport Marine Lake Events Centre

Four industry-leading organisations have been announced to work on the brand new Marine Lake Events Centre project in Southport.

Situated on Southport Promenade, this spectacular new events space, on the site of the former Southport Theatre & Convention Centre, will be combined with a jaw-dropping ‘Light Fantastic’ animation on the Marine Lake.

A total of £33million in funding is being provided from the Government’s Southport Town Deal initiative for the project with a pledge for a further £20million in support from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The entire scheme is forecast to cost in the region of £70million. 

It is believed the creation of the Marine Lake Events Centre will lead to footfall of over 515,000 visitors to the waterfront. It will also create 288 jobs, and boost the town’s hotel and hospitality sector with nearly 60,000 overnight stays from conferences and events alone.

Throughout the last few months, Sefton Council has been working hard to appoint architects, project management teams, engineers and specialist consultants to the project in order to begin the transformation.

After a detailed and stringent tendering process, Sefton Council has appointed:

–    AFL Architects (a Manchester based commercial architecture firm)

–    IPW (UK wide sports, venue & entertainment consultants)

–    Gardiner & Theobald LLP  (A property consultancy firm providing project & cost management services for the project)

–    AECOM (A global infrastructure consultancy firm delivering a wide range of engineering services for the project)

Cllr Marion Atkinson, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration & Skills, said:

“As the largest investment project included within the Southport Town Deal, the Marine Lake Events Centre will provide Southport with an incredible events space with state-of-the-art facilities to attract a continuous and wide range of different types of entertainment, events and audiences to the resort.

“That is why we need to work with the very best of the best to help deliver this project effectively and successfully from the very beginning. 

“We chose firms that share our passion and ambition to transform Southport into a thriving and vibrant visitor destination through the creation of the Marine Lake Events Centre and it is clear that everyone we have brought on board is extremely excited to get started on this project.

“AFL Architects will provide detailed and achievable designs, capturing the modern and sleek feel of the new-look centre, while preserving the surrounding heritage and history of the promenade to compliment the versatility we want the centre to have.

“IPW will be on hand to provide guidance and experience to the project thanks to its impressive history of helping to deliver on a number of entertainment venues and they will work alongside Gardener & Theobald LLP to make sure we are working efficiently and within budgets.

“We have also brought in civil engineering consultants AECOM, who have a huge presence in the North West to focus on the engineering aspects of the project from public health to structural engineering.”

Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrown@gmail.com