By Andrew Brown Stand Up For Southport
The new Southport Enterprise Arcade, which aims to boost the growth of creative and digital businesses in Southport, is due to open its doors early in the new year.
Sefton Council is leading the ambitious scheme on Eastbank Street as a way of diversifying the local economy and providing more opportunities particularly for young people.
It is being funded through £1.5 million in Town Deal funding and will be situated in the Crown Buildings, next to and above The Entertainer toy shop, and above Cambridge Walks.
It will be the third co-working and collaborative workspace in Southport town centre, adding to Werksy on West Street and The Engine Room inside Wayfarers Arcade on Lord Street.
It will boast a mix of accommodation which includes:
- a collaborative Ground Floor Food and Drink based offer
- a co-working / hot desk and start-up space on the first floor
- three ‘grow on’ offices on the second floor
- a large single office on the third floor suitable for an ‘anchor tenant’ for the project
Work is ongoing to attract an operator to open a cafe / food and drink offer on the ground floor.
No official opening date has yet been set and none of the new tenants have yet been announced.
The scheme will be discussed at Sefton Council’s Cabinet meeting at Bootle Town Hall on Thursday (5th December 2024).
A council report says: “Enterprise Arcade is delivering an important element of the Southport Town Deal, seeking to increase the sector representation of Creative and Digital businesses in Southport and across the borough as a whole.
“In this way Enterprise Arcade will provide a focus for the sector, a hub for collaboration and a base for skills and learning development in a work-based environment.
“In addition, it will help diversify the town centre and local economy.
“Next steps for this project involve ongoing dialogue with prospective tenants and marketing of the facility to the market.”
Sefton says “The building will complete early in 2025”.
The operation and management of the building was intended to be provided through a third party competent in both building management but also with appropriate experience and expertise in supporting start up and growth businesses in the target sector.
Following a tender process, Sefton says it has not been possible to identify a suitable commercial operating partner for the project.
On this basis in May 2023 Sefton decided to progress the project with the council as the operator of Enterprise Arcade, until and unless an alternative and suitable alternative operator is identified.
The project does not focus purely on profit but aims to break-even in the long term.
It will assume a prudent approach in rental assumptions, including potential rent free space for young people and students.
The space aims to create “the right mix and ecosystem to support local enterprise and growth in the creative and digital sector”.
A review of the name and brand for the facility will be undertaken in partnership with anchor tenants early in 2025.
Enterprise Arcade and the digital and creative opportunity in Southport will be promoted and supported at a Liverpool City Region level and will be highlighted as part of all ongoing inward investment work co-ordinated through the Invest Sefton Team and Local Growth Platform.
Alongside the wider value of the project in securing local skills development through business development the opportunity exists for the Enterprise Arcade Project to become a local base for digital skills development more generally.
Co-locating creative and digital businesses would enable the space to become a focus for sector skills development on a work-based learning model – for example supporting T Level qualification learning.
The contractor on the building project has been working alongside Sefton Council in exploring ways in which the project can support this aim.
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