Practical completion for Preston’s £46m Animate
Estate management firm Sanderson Weatherall will take over management of the mixed-use leisure and entertainment site after Preston-based Maple Grove Developments, part of Eric Wright Group, completes the development’s final touches.
Animate’s practical completion will spearhead further momentum of the transformation of Preston’s civic centre through an entertainment offer that will bring an eight-screen cinema and a 16-lane bowling alley to the heart of the city.
The handover of the site to Sanderson Weatherall will see the company deal with tenants and the management of the building.
Designed by MGD, the scheme has one 10,000 sq ft commercial let remaining, which could be split into two units subject to tenant requirements.
Final works on landscaping will be rounded off at the site before vendors such as restaurant brands such as a food hall by Northern Lights Group, Zizzi, Las Iguanas, Hollywood Bowl, and cinema operator ARC Cinemas conduct their own subcontracted fit-outs.
Construction was completed well on schedule.
Matt Friedmann, project manager at EWG, said the job was hard, with a lot of early mornings and weekend work, but that the team pulled through.
The project was completed in line with Preston City Council’s social requirements for developments, which are crucial for all council-endorsed projects.
Friedmann said: “As a business, we have quite a high social values ethic, so we met quite a lot of our social targets and didn’t have to go too far out from our norm to get there.
“We do a lot with collages and apprenticeships, and ensure we have them throughout our supply chain.”
A planning application was granted permission in May 2022. Construction on the site began in January 2023.
The opening ceremony has been scheduled and is expected in spring 2025.
Solar panels on the roof of Animate. Credit: via Preston City Council
Finances for the £45.8m project were secured through various funding schemes.
Towns Fund pot £3.4m was used, part of the £20.8m won by Preston in 2021 from the then government’s Towns Fund initiative.
John Chesworth, chair of the Towns Fund Board, said: “We tried to concentrate [funding] around this area, the Harris Quarter, to crowd that investment in to make a real difference to one part of the city.”
“People can now see the art of the possible, as it were, which will encourage more private investment – there are definitely signs now that it is working.”
He added: “Deliverability – seeing that a place can actually deliver a scheme is very important. We’ve got in big national chains, who are really good operators.
“They see that there’s a real market here, but for the development side, they’re paying the right rents. That will help developers see there is an opportunity here in Preston.”
Animate is right in the heart of Preston City Centre. Credit: via Preston City Council
Animate has replaced a multi-storey car park with a build that will bring five restaurants, a street food hub, and bar spaces to an area set to become the centrepiece of Preston’s wider Harris Quarter plans.
The adjacent Preston Markets has already seen food vendors lodge later licensing applications, which according to the council, are likely to be approved.
Preston bus station is a short and direct walking route away.
Underneath the development, a 164-space car park has been constructed.
Cllr Valerie Wise, cabinet member at Preston City Council for community wealth building and city regeneration, said: “It’s a real feather in our cap for the council.
“We are really putting Preston on the map, it’s going to be a place for our local residents to come, but also visitors from elsewhere.”
Cllr Martyn Rawlinson, deputy leader and cabinet member for resources, added: “This is the biggest council investment in Preston for 50 years – we’ve got £120m capital programme, that’s never happened before.”
“We’ve been very successful bidding for government funding streams – we’ve got the Towns Fund, the Levelling up Fund. Things have come together but we’ve made it happen.
“The kind of information you need to win government funding, we had it, we were ready, they wanted shovel-ready schemes, we were virtually there – we know what Preston needs, we’ve got it all down.”
Preston City Council will fully own the scheme, once debts have been paid off.
Animate Preston is the flagship project of Preston’s wider £200m regeneration plans, which include six major projects.
The planned upgrades to the Harris Quarter include The Vault, a youth zone facility, and the refurbishment of the grade one-listed Harris Museum.
The renewal of Amounderness House into a managed flexible office space, Preston Pop-Ups, a £1m events programme, and Illuminate and Integrate, which will deliver well-lit and improved pedestrian and cycleways, are also in the development pipeline.
The site has pre-let all of its units bar one 10,000 sq ft commercial let. Credit: via Preston City Council
