Turning A Corner

There are two corners in this real-life example. The first is the purchase of a derelict pub, and turning it into a viable, revitalised, reopened property with the new name Corner House Coffee Bar.

From Ruinous Old Closed Pub

To Fresh Newstart Building & Business

The second is a more profound turn of a corner: that of turning around the accelerating number of pub closures in the country. During the first half of 2015 there were circa 29 pub closures per week…

Click Here For BBC Public House Closure Article

In fairly recently times (2017), the rate of pub closures is nearer 15 per week (click here and here). But statistics can be way out of context. Given there are already hundreds of public houses that have been closed down over the past decade, the rate is slowing due to there being significantly fewer pubs around to close!

All of this is a huge waste. Closed buildings; lost business rates; lost jobs; lost income tax; lost corporation tax; lost retail sales; lost VAT; lost alcohol excise duty. Not to mention the loss of amenity. Especially when it is the last pub in the town or village that is closing.

So, what can be done to remedy this loss? Below is a clear example. It shows what a group of determined individuals can do as a very pleasant and productive hobby. Pooling a few thousand pounds each from the Premium Bonds or obscenely low interest-bearing bank accounts (1% per annum doesn’t even keep up with inflation).

Wise Counsel: We BAN mortgages, so that whichever group of friends are partaking in these adventures will know that their funds are backed by a solid, fully insured asset. If you consider replicating this, please make best efforts to AVOID any bank mortgages. Why: Click Here.

Buying, renovating and re-opening a wreck might seem mundane, but in truth and experience, this process was uplifting in ways difficult to describe in word. But we’ll give it a go:

Six full time and six part time jobs were created out of a derelict pub. That is asides from the work that the trades involved in the building renovation secured.

This is a microcosm of what could and should be happening all around the country.

In this particular case the civil servants, in the form of the local planning authority at Argyll & Bute Council were very helpful.

A breath of fresh air that other government departments might like to look upon kindly. The local planners agreed that as long as there was a “bar” within the old public house, we did not need the nightmare of a change of use application. We kept the bar, but forwent the alcohol and made it a COFFEE BAR. The previous shop we converted to an office (click here) had a process that was utter torture. Ultimately that “change of use” permission from a shop to an office required 203 pieces of paper to be submitted to the council. That was (and is) a serious problem that the parliamentarians and lawmakers might do well to consider?

We ask: How many jobs are lost due to folk simply having had enough of killer weights of red tape and just walking away from creating new jobs like these 12 jobs?

As at 2022 we are on project 49 with 168 NEW JOBS being created. It has COST the government NOTHING. Is a carefully considered change in the planning law overdue? We say “yes please”.

Such a modest law change is needed to remedy the damage to job creation that the current over regulated planning and building control sector imposes on businesses that create employment with real jobs in the real world.

The directors of our former company Argyll Group plc, now taken private (here ~ due to the costs of running a public limited company) found that through these pages, we have shareholder friends that have emulate the projects on these very pages and that totals 82 renovated commercial buildings, taking the…

New Job Total To

203

None too shabby for a Harbourmaster and a Firefighter starting a part-time hobby.

This derelict eyesore was the WORST pub in town…

After the diminutive group of friends had renovated and re-opened this derelict pub, turning it into a clean, fresh and vibrant Coffee Shop, word got around town very fast tenant became very busy and the original 8 jobs needed to be increased to a total of…

12 New Jobs Created.

This was a wonderful result and can be a beacon as to what might be managed in other towns throughout the country where the last pub in the village is about to close.

Some developers wish to take a much more profitable route and secure change of use to convert the closed pub into a luxury house. Great for the new owner, but not so good for the local community who have lost a significant part of their amenities forever.

But it does not have to be that way. Here is the evidence. Please compare the “before” and “after” photos to get an idea of what can be achieved, and we can attest as to how well the renovated premises were received by the local community.

Ground Floor Entrance Area “After”

The real shock we got is how busy the new Coffee Bar became so phenomenally busy in such a short period of time following the day of reopening.

More exciting things are happening on this entire building-closure-reopening front. Community ownership of the last pub, or the last post office; or the last shop in town are occurring the length and breadth of the country. Some 400 community owned shops now exist in the UK…

Click Here To Read About Community Shop Initiatives

There are a growing number of such efforts. All shapes and sizes. Many variations – in communities from John O’Groats to Lands’ End. We have new friends working to this end throughout the UK and shall cover several efforts on dedicated pages within this website in due course.

Wise Counsel: If you and some friends do decide to follow the pattern of the type of venture capital support projects illustrated on this website, PLEASE be careful, or at least ready for what any particular building might throw at you. This particular old pub structure was bought as a derelict shell, and took the best part of a year to both renovate and get the newstart business person installed and financially supported.

We bought this derelict old pub for £20,000 on 6th November 2002 and spent around £43,000 on the refurbishment. We helped the new tenant reopen it and became his de facto bank. The business was successfully grown. The tenant was offered the building, but declined, being happier to rent.

First refusal to buy the renovated coffee shop was made to the tenant (it was/is a three-storey building with owner’s flat on top). This is because the funds are recycled into renovating the next empty shop or closed-down hotel.

The tenant was happy just renting as it was a better deal in monthly rent payments than the banks were offering (the rent was much less than a commercial bank mortgage repayment).

We then offered the building for sale (with tenant and business in situ). The eventual buyer is a gentleman happy to own an asset-backed building that provides him with a handsome income. It cut out the greedy banks who paid the buyer 1.25% on his bank deposit and now he happily banks 7.5% in rent (plus the likelihood of a capital gain that gently accrues as the years pass by.

With the funds released, they were deployed in buying the next High Street shop/pub/office ruin and creating more jobs.

As mentioned elsewhere in this website, profit is important part of these adventures. The Corner House Coffee Shop is clearly an example of how well these projects can turn out:-

Derelict Pub Renovated

12 Jobs Created

Community Amenity Facility Reopened

Resale Profits Utilised For Reinvestment

In New Shop Reopening Ventures.

Some may call this a virtuous circle.

After reading the facts and figures, would something like this work in your community?