Wigan's Civic Centre is set to be turned into a business hub for supporting start-up firms.
The council has signed off on contractors to begin the work to overhaul the former home of their own offices. Since the rejuvenation of Wigan Town Hall and the Life Centre, there is no longer a need for council office space in the Millgate site.
The Civic Centre was also home to public service use as well. Charlotte Cordingley, director for housing, property and corporate assets, said: “Following the refurbishment of Wigan Town Hall, the Civic Centre is no longer required for occupational use by the council.
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“Wigan Council has appraised a number of different options to bring this site back into use for the benefit of our local economy and sustainably creating a new facility in Wigan borough by redeveloping a currently empty building. Our vision is to create a supportive environment for existing SMEs and encourage new entrepreneurs to drive growth and significantly improve current performance against key economic indicators at a sub-regional and national level.”
The council’s plan is to retain the use of the building at the heart of the community so the public can use the facility to boost their own enterprises. In turn, the council believes this can help boost the local economy.
“The ambition is for the creation of hubs, where existing buildings such as the Civic Centre within the council’s ownership will be repurposed to create start-up space with fast broadband connection in the digital, technology, arts and cultural sectors in particular and this project will be the first phase towards achieving that aim,” Ms Cordingley continued.
“A complementary and distinctive offer will be provided through a tailored innovation support and entrepreneurship programme delivered by a specialist management and leadership team.
“This would help to attract and retain innovative, high growth businesses in the town centre. The council is progressing delivery plans and we hope to be able to reveal further details about the plans in forthcoming weeks.”
Currently the council has not confirmed a start date for the repurposing works.
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