Entrepreneur plans Shrewsbury warehouse revamp
Monday 22nd August 2011, 11:29AM BST.
A Shropshire businessman claimed today his plans to transform one of Shrewsbury’s most historic buildings into a new complex made up of restaurants, bars and boutique shops would enhance the town.
Kad Zaman, the owner of the Station Hotel in Wellington, said he was hoping to change the Old Maltings building in Frankwell, near to the Theatre Severn and the Guildhall, into a thriving nightspot.
He has applied to Shropshire Council for two illuminated signs advertising the development under its intended new name The Maltings at Frankwell Quay.
Mr Zaman said the plans offered an opportunity to improve the town.
“At the end of the day, we are going to enhance Frankwell and Shrewsbury,” he said.
“It is a big old warehouse so you could either have one big unit, which I don’t think is feasible, or several smaller ones. It is a good chance to regenerate it.”
He said he had been in charge of The Station Hotel in Wellington for about 14 or 15 years and was now looking to expand his business into Shrewsbury.
Mr Zaman said he would be aiming at a different clientele to the “community pub” feel of the Station Hotel and was hoping to set up his own bar inside the Frankwell development called The Malthouse, which would have live music nights and be aimed at a target audience of over 25s.
He added that the proposals could create jobs, as well as boosting the night-time economy.
“If I take a site on there and put a bar in with live music, I would be looking to employ about 20 people just in that bar,” he said.
He said he had looked for inspiration for the scheme to Manchester, where there were plenty of canalside bars and restaurants.
Mr Zaman has displayed some prospective ideas for what type of businesses could go inside the possible Maltings development online. The website is www.frankwellquay.co.uk
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An opportunity to promote well made dishes using local produce, rather than bland fayre delivered in freezer wagons by Brakes, and an opportunity to showcase some fantastic real ales brewed by Shropshire’s many breweries, rather than rows of shiny brass taps pumping out generic(“brewed under licence in a factory in South Wales”) European lager, please.
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An opportunity to improve the town?!? Mr zahmans ideas of improving start with illuminated signs? And a new ‘ nightspot’ by the river is woefully not thought out. Let’s hope this individual leaves his bright ideas in Wellington.
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What a load of rubbish!!
That building has been derelict for the best part of a decade and its about time someone decided to do something productive with it.
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Once again an individuals ‘idea’ of improvement, in the terms of the buildings of Shrewsbury; is driven by nothing more than short-term quick profit. The last thing Shrewsbury town centre needs is yet more places to encourage drunken and anti-social behaviour. Best if Zaman keeps his ideas to where they are better suited.
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Oh Dear! what a surprise! not to mention a shame…
Someone already moaning already, and tryng to put it down, before its even up?
I guess you are the same person who would be moaning about Shrewsbury turning all its pavements into nice places to sit and have a coffe and watch the world go by, (which, I must say, works very well)
Its a fantastic idea, working well with the new Silverton bar/hotel,Franks etc,
wth all the nice shops etc. now in the area, its lovely that it will now tidy up the derelict buildings, and make them into something we all want to use, before and after the Theatre, or just to watch the River, and a lovely view of the Darwin Artwork (which I love too, shock horror!)
Its been transformed in Frankwell over the last few years, and I am very proud to live in the area……. stop knocking everything, please?
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We should welcome anything that prevents the old historic building from falling down,I support everything that The Original Jake has said.
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I hope he realises the costs involved as those buildings are in a dire state but the concept is wonderful. London and Liverpool and Salford and Birmingham have all created thriving and tasteful cafe culture using buildings with their own unique history, preserving them for the future.
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It will certainly be a challenge to renovate the eyesore, all we have to wait for now is the town licencees wailing that their trade is on the wane
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this proves the doubters about the Guildhall and Theatre wrong, there was alot of critics at the time but i remember when frankwell was a dump with metal smelting and contaminated and flooded land all over, now its reborn with franks and the theatre and the anchor being done up, the new indian restaurant, the new boutique hotel, its becoming a really nice and thriving area. For me it shows that clearly the public sector investment in flood defences and commercial property in this area has led regeneration and attracted private investment in too, well done to the council for leading on this.
Perhaps the Flaxmill could be the next success story if only the public sector is willing to invest and see public spending as a good thing not a bad thing for local economies.
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Excellent post.
Couldn’t agree more.
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Agree, well done to S&ABC for sorting this place out as a local resident i am very pleased with the area now
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good to hear local business doing well and preserving old buildings too, i think its a good idea for that area
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Sounds like a great idea to me. We need more music venues in Shrewsbury. Agree that the project should be constructed by local businesses and source local products.
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good luck to him
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Sorry Giles but the utterly ridiculous cost of the theatre could have only be funded by the public purse and at the expense of social housing as it was the windfall from selling our housing stock that paid for it.
So all those looking at homelessness can gaze at the theatre and marvel at how much it has cost them.
We could have still had a bigger and better theatre by the river on the Gay Meadow for the money it took to build it on that totally unsuitable site.
I seem to remember a nice privately sponsered hotel proposed for where the theatre is.
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Good man i would support any development which preserves these beautiful buildings, well done mr zaman, i dont have much but if you want an investment i’d quite happily buy a couple of shares as would im sure hundreds of other local frankwell people
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Eve still forgetting that to build on the old Football site would of coated a further 10 million to buy the land.
The build cost of the theater was 16 million not all local money.
Four million was also set aside for revenue support which the new council has taken back into the general fund.
When SABC went so did the millions in cash. SABC after LSVT invested in 500 affordable homes. More importantly Sevenside could then also raise the funds on the open market to invest in the housing stock which was not allowed under council housing regulations.
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Ex councillor armstrong, It was you and your cabinet that removed the covenant on the ground and thus gave it to STFC. So please explain why the ground would have cost £10 million. And please don’t tell us that you transferred the covenant to the new football ground. and use this as a excuse.
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Well said charles – please come back soon and inject some commercial nouse into the incompetents at shropshire council!
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GR8!
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I for one am extremely excited. I live on Mount Street and think this is good for the entire area. How could it not be? Plenty of Job creation, renovation and restoration of a dilapidated historic building, opportunities for local vendors and suppliers. Go on Kad!
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The reduction in the costs to build the theatre would have covered that easily Mr Armstrong and it wouldn’t have mean’t the large legal costs involved in sorting out the covenant on the ground either.
The build cost of the theatre was 32 million not the 28 million often banded about.
SABC couldn’t bear to lose control of the money made in the council housing sell off, likely to happen when we went unitary so they made rash and ill thought out decisions that would have never left the ground had the true horrendous end costs been acknowledged initially.
Still the other Shropshire councils didn’t get our money eh!
We could have had an architecturally wonderful building rather than succeeding in building a theatre voted one of the worst new buildings in the UK in the Architects magazine.
We could have still redeveloped the old quay side area but now we are stuck with this poorly sited appallingly built tacky theatre. As I previously said, I hope that Mr Zaman well in his ambitious plans and that he has deep pockets.I also hope he gets better support than previous entrepreneurs interested in that area.
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Not another bar/hotel.
We need more variety in the town – in fact the anagram of bar/hotel is “a brothel”. Let’s liven things up.
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good idea – live music venue yes please. On the theatre issue couldnt agree more with several of the comments on here – its an appalling building with the same tawdry 3rd rate productions and artists that the Music Hall used to put on.
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wait til the do goods from the planning team and english heritage get involved and this will ruin it!
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