Entrepreneurs behind successful Liverpool bars to project manage the creation of the food and drink offer at the £3.64m leisure project in Hoylake’s Victorian civic building. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool hospitality consultancy Lucky Penny Consultants is to take charge of creating food and drink outlets at a multi-million pound leisure scheme at a historic Wirral building.
Lucky Penny will project manage the creation and development of the food and drink offer planned for The Beacon in Hoylake. The deal will see the business deliver and partner operate three outlets.
Hylgar Properties alongside Community Interest Company, Hoylake Village Life, is bringing forward a £3.64m plan to convert Hoylake’s Victorian civic building into a two-screen cinema and 18 creative studios and retail spaces for artists and makers. Work started at the end of 2019.
It follows the successful application for grant funding from the government’s Coastal Community Fund, which is designed to help coastal communities flourish and strengthen their appeal as places to live, work and visit. The Beacon will also feature a restaurant, a bar and a café bistro in the building’s central courtyard.
Lucky Penny is run by Steven Burgess and Josh Moore who last year opened Abditory in Liverpool’s Queen Avenue which links Dale Street and Castle Street in the city centre. It also launched the Love Lane Brewery in 2017 and is currently bringing forward multiple schemes across the region.
Steven, who was also co-founder of the hugely successful Camp & Furnace venue in the Baltic Triangle, said: “Hoylake is a hidden gem, a town with so much potential, and we are determined to deliver something very special with real quality that will help lift the high street.
“We are delighted to be part of the vision for The Beacon which has the potential to be transformational for Hoylake and indeed West Wirral for generations to come. This is so much more than a commercial project because it is a community driven scheme with real purpose and the passion of those involved really shines through, which we love.
“We have helped in the revival of New Brighton and The Beacon has revival at its heart, so this is a fantastic opportunity for us to add value and really enrich the project with our experience, married to the community’s ambition to create that legacy.”
The ambition for the restaurant is to be “innovative, exciting and unique”. The atrium café will appeal to all generations, at different times of day, while the bar will have a very “cool, quirky, independent pub vibe”.
David Burke of Hylgar Properties, added: “Lucky Penny are acknowledged experts in their field and a very exciting company to work with. They bring a huge wealth of expertise and will join up the critical dots between our ambition and the delivery.
“Their work in New Brighton and in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle is evidence not only of their success and excellence, but also of their approach and how they interact with the communities in which they work.”
The first phase of works on the 1898 building includes internal and external demolitions and construction, including new roofing. The restaurant with a newly built commercial kitchen, the bar/pub, and a newly-formed covered courtyard with new commercial kitchen space will be on the ground floor.
Phase two of the project is planned by spring 2020 when the building will be fitted out. In subsequent phases in addition to the 18 retail units, upper floors of the development will provide 40 apartments, using private funding.