Plans sought for coastal wildlife attraction site
APROPERTY agent is inviting proposals for the former Living Coasts attraction on Torquay seafront.
Bettesworths says serious potential occupiers for the site of the closed marine wildlife attraction should get in touch with plans for uses or development by Friday, July 16.
It is advertising the property as a world-class location with an outdoor landscaped area of 4,600 sq m (50,000 sq ft) and a substantial restaurant “with unrivalled panoramic sea views”.
The commercial property agent says the site has “scope for an enormous range of possible uses”.
It is asking for expressions of interest from “viable parties” rather than ideas from the general public.
The Wild Planet Trust, which runs Paignton Zoo and Newquay Zoo, announced in June, 2020, that Living Coasts attraction would not reopen after the pandemic, with the loss of 44 jobs. It opened in 2003 on a theme of seabirds and coastal wildlife under a giant net, with attractions including a flock of penguins. The trust had a 125year lease from Torbay Council for the site, on an outcrop between the harbour and Beacon Cove.
The south-facing beach known during the Victorian era as the Ladies’ Bathing Cove is said to have been a favourite childhood haunt of Torquayborn thriller writer Agatha Christie.
A statement from the council in 2020 said it would prefer to see the Living Coasts site continue as a wildlife centre but it had received a number of proposals for the land, including redevelopment.
Torbay’s former elected mayor, Gordon Oliver, has called for a landscaped public open space on the headland, which has a long history of use for leisure and entertainment.
The opening of the Living Coasts marine wildlife attraction in July, 2003, was the latest in a series of uses for the site, including a spa and adventure park.