Council seek manager to steer £70m events centre
SEFTON Council is seeking an experienced project manager to lead the planning, implementation and delivery of the £70 million Marine Lake Events Centre in Southport.
The local authority is looking to create the new centre on the site of the former Southport Theatre and Convention Centre, which closed in March last year.
The Southport Town Deal board has already allocated £30 million funding for the project, with a further £20 million earmarked by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
The new Southport Events Centre project manager will work closely with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, including senior managers and staff across Sefton Council, external consultants and partner organisations, to ensure the successful delivery of the project.
The job is full time with a salary of Grade J (£39,880-42,821).
Four potential operators are already keen to take over the running of the new facility.
The Marine Lake Events Centre was the central ambition of the recent Southport Town Deal bid to the Government,
which secured £37.5 million from Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in the Budget in March, adding to £1 million already allocated to Southport last year.
The new operator would be involved in the design process for the new events centre and would be secured on a long term deal (25+ years), giving the confidence to funders and providing income to the council.
The idea of appointing a commercial operator was recommended by consultants IPW, which comprises HOK Architects, AECOM and Gardiner and Theobold.
In his report to Sefton Council’s Cabinet, Sefton executive director Stephen Watson wrote: “Soft markettesting was undertaken as part of the outline business case, which indicated that there were four operators who may be interested in the Marine Lake Events Centre.
“IPW therefore recommended that a commercial operator be appointed through a competitive process that provides maximum risk transfer from, and certainty to, the council.
“There are a series of major benefits to overall project delivery of procuring an operator early in the development process.
“Hence why, this is now the best practice approach when developing venues of this type.”
The new Events Centre formed part of the Southport Town Deal consultation.
This overall consultation, which was carried out by Stand Up For Southport, Turleys and DS Emotion, resulted in over 7,000 responses with regards to the overall Town Deal.