Stand Up For Southport blog by Andrew Brown
It’s incredibly exciting to see building work about to start on creating the brand new £73 million Marine Lake Events Centre in Southport.
It’s important to emphasise just how transformational this new facility will be for Southport in a project being led by Sefton Council.
And not just for Southport, but also for the wider Sefton borough and the Liverpool city region.
The numbers involved are staggering.
The cost is £73 million, which includes £3.3 million to install the new Light Fantastic water and light show on the Marine Lake in front of the MLEC – the first of its kind in the country.
This is by far the biggest Southport regeneration scheme in a lifetime.
For context, the redevelopment of The Atkinson 10 years ago cost £20 million; the Waterfront development (including the Waterfront Hotel, originally the Ramada Plaza Hotel and the casino complex next door) cost £14.5 million; the creation of Southport Sea Wall £7 million; the revamp of Kings Gardens £6 million; and the 150 ft high Marine Way Bridge £5 million.
This dwarves all of those.
The new centre is forecast to attract over 515,000 people to the facility every year.
That will have a huge impact on a wide range of local businesses, including shops, restaurants, hotels, guest houses, taxi firms, cafes and more.
An estimated £18 million will be generated for the local economy each year as a result of the new Marine Lake Events Centre, as it replaces the former Southport Theatre and Convention Centre, which has been closed since March 2020.
It will create 290 gross direct on-site and off-site operational jobs, creating a variety of new career opportunities for local people.
An artist’s impression of the new Marine lake Events Centre in Southport
The impressive new development will be a modern building comprising a 1,200 seat theatre (1,500 capacity seating standing), and a conference centre with a capacity of 2,400. Work is already taking place to entice the business market back into town.
These are just the black and white figures, but the intangible benefits are enormous too.
It has been a real team effort to realise this ambitious scheme.
The Marine Lake Events Centre is the central project of Southport Town Deal, taking up £33.3 million of the £37.5 million granted by the Government to regenerate the centre of Southport.
A further £20 million has been provided by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, with Sefton Council providing up to £19.7 million through prudential borrowing.
The £37.5 million given to Southport through Town Deal was the second highest amount awarded of 100 Town Deal schemes across the UK.
Such huge confidence shown by the Government in Southport’s future is generating equally high confidence among private investors.
Will it be value for money?
When the Southport Town Deal team submitted their bid for funding, they estimated that it would be the catalyst to attract a further £400 million in private investment.
We are already seeing the tangible evidence of that.
The largest scheme to emerge so far in the light of Town Deal has been Southport Cove, which is due to create a new £75 million leisure beach, spa facilities and 200-bed four storey hotel on the site of Princes Park.
An artist’s impression of The Cove Resort in Southport
In May this year, the retail side of Ocean Plaza in Southport was bought by property investment company M Core in a multi-million pound deal.
It was the second major investment by the firm this year, which also bought the Central 12 retail park on Derby Road in Southport for a deal believed to be worth £27 million.
The northern end of Lord Street has been transformed by Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group, with the first two phases of The Grand project already costing an estimated £4 million.
The firm has also redeveloped The Bold Hotel, the Lord Street Hotel, the Lord Street Sports Bar, Maverick’s Bar and Punch Tarmey’s Irish themed bar, as well as operating the centre bar in Southport Market.
At the other end of Lord Street, millions of pounds are being spent to create a stunning new look for The Garrick, with 137 new hotel rooms, 11 apartments, commercial units, a gym and spa, a bar and restaurant and the refurbishment of the existing event auditorium.
Investor confidence in Southport is blossoming.
An artist’s impression of the proposed new design for the former Garrick theatre in Southport
It’s all being sparked into life through the successful and very ambitious Southport Town Deal initiative, which has already seen Southport Market opening and has the Marine Lake Events Centre due to slowly appear on the Promenade. A new Southport Enterprise Arcade is also due to appear.
Watch out for more investment coming into Southport over the next couple of years as redevelopment continues.
Buyers are already in talks to snap up the Waterfront Hotel and the adjoining site.
Interest is coming in for the stunning Victoria baths building.
Look out for more positive news coming soon too.
There is more to do of course.
What we really need now is to find sufficient funding to restore Southport Pier.
Improved road and rail facilities to accommodate all these additional visitors will become even more vital.
In the meantime, the new Marine Lake Events Centre is set to take Southport to new heights with a very exciting future ahead.
It’s showtime!
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