Major funding breakthrough for Generator project
“Loughborough will now see builders in the Generator very soon David Pagett-Wright
WORK on regenerating the Generator building in Loughborough is due to start this month following a major funding breakthrough in the final days of 2023.
This is a watershed moment for the organisation behind the project, the Generator CIC, a community interest company managed by volunteers, who have been working hard for several years to transform the sizable 1930s Generator Hall on Packe Street.
The project will keep the industrial feel of the space, which many people will know as part of the Old Art College, while creating a largecapacity, multi-purpose cultural centre for the town, where people can enjoy all creative arts.
The project’s application for a major chunk of funding from the Community Ownership Fund (funded by UK Government / Powered by Levelling Up) came good just before Christmas on Friday 22nd December 2023, a crucial milestone in the journey and the final piece of the puzzle for this stage of the project, according to the team behind the restoration.
David Pagett-Wright, chair of the Generator CIC, summarises the key moments of the past few months that mean the restoration can begin:
He said: “The £700K from the Community Ownership Fund unlocked so much: at last, we could sign contracts and Loughborough will now see builders in the Generator very soon.
“Alongside this amazing breakthrough, we’ve been working incredibly hard behind the scenes for reasons we can now reveal. When we went to tender in July 2023, we discovered that recent, exceptional inflation in building costs had made our established plans no longer feasible. We hit quite a wall.
“We had to re-work our plans, creating a two-stage approach, and then go back to our main funders to get their agreement. Thankfully, all are on board with this approach. Their approval, along with the funding that landed just before Christmas and the subsequent signing off of the building contract means that we can now say that we’ve done it. It’s full steam ahead for the Generator!
“The recent lack of news belies the intense planning and negotiations over the past few months among the CIC board, Linedota Architects and Messenger, our building contractor, as we all worked so hard to reshape our plans and form the two-stage approach.”
The journey so far...
The project’s earliest meetings were in 2014; The Generator Loughborough Community Interest Company (CIC) was formalised in June 2015.
Since then, the project has made many funding applications, each accompanied by a detailed proposal, where everything was planned and costed, with professional input from Linedota Architects. There have also been revisions over time, to incorporate new ideas and to keep track with inflation.
“So our funding pot has grown over these years,” explained director Roger Perrett, “but this has not meant we could go to tender and start restoration. With this type of funding, none of the sources will release funds until the whole amount has been achieved, with fully approved plans, so it has been a waiting game. Following the Town Deal funding in 2022 and the Crowdfunder success in 2023, we believed the time was right to go out to tender in the summer of 2023, based on the latest plans and costings. But when we did this, we found that our estimates had been blown out of the water by building cost inflation. A major setback.”
At this point, the Generator team met to reassess the strategy.
“A two-phase approach emerged as the solution,” explained director Andy Harper, “with the initial stage focusing on renovating and converting the building, and most importantly, opening its doors. To validate this approach, the team developed new plans and estimated associated costs. Once confident in their rationale, they took the essential step of consulting with our existing funders, acknowledging that this adjustment altered the scope of their support.”
“We are delighted to share that these consultations were successful,” added director Jill Vincent, “and we express our deep gratitude to our major funders - Town Deal, Community Ownership Fund, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Architectural Heritage Fund – for approving our proposal to implement the project in stages. At the same time, we were awaiting news from our Community Ownership Fund application, which would add £700K to the funds.”
“This funding win was announced on Friday 22nd December 2023,” said company secretary Jonathan Hale, “an early Christmas present indeed! Even so, extensive negotiations and revisions were then needed to bring us within our £2.5m budget. At last, we can say ‘We’ve done it.’ And now we can go public.”
Messenger Construction will be doing the work, with a start on site in April this year with an 11-month contract period. The venue aims to open in Spring of 2025.