A project to regenerate a Wirral seaside town hall and rejuvenate its high street will create 140 jobs after receiving a £3.64m government grant.
The Beacon Arts Village project has been dreamt up by Hoylake Village Life Community Interest Company and site owners Hylgar Properties, and is set to open next year.
The group believe it will "reimagine" the town's high street, which has fallen on "harder times".
With work beginning this autumn, the group will set about creating an "arts village" with a two-screen cinema, restaurant, bar, café bistro as well as creative studios, apartments and retail spaces.
According to the group in charge, the project will create more than 140 jobs during design, construction and operation, and is set to open to the public in October 2020.
Mark Howard, Hoylake Village Life volunteer and founder of the community cinema, said: “We’ve done a huge amount of public consultation; from this and from the overwhelmingly positive feedback to the planning application it’s clear that many people feel this is exactly the kind of development Hoylake needs.
"To stay alive, a town needs to keep up a process of continual change and sustainable redevelopment and this project is an exemplar of that.
“It’s superbly located adjacent to the train station and sits on a high street that needs greater animation and footfall and we believe this will increase Hoylake’s attraction for visitors, as well as create scores of jobs and future collaboration opportunities.”
The building, first opened in 1898, is currently home to the monthly ‘pop-up’ Hoylake Community Cinema, as well as a number of small creative enterprises, including BAFTA award winning film production company, Mad as Birds, and a Wirral Chamber of Commerce satellite office.
The grant has been awarded from the Coastal Communities Fund, by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, designed to help coastal communities flourish and strengthen their appeal as places to live, work and visit.
Hylgar Properties has said it will deliver a new build housing the 18 studio/retail spaces, with the upper floors of the development to be converted into 40 apartments using private funding.
Work is expected to start by October this year, with a contractor appointed after July.
