New images reveal £6m 'box space' planned for Wolverhampton city centre
A new £6 million entertainment and events space in Wolverhampton will be created in the city centre under major plans being put forward by council bosses.
Chiefs have said derelict shops at 1-7a Cleveland Street will be bulldozed under the scheme which bosses are hoping will attract “thousands of visitors” next year.
It marks the latest push to regenerate the city which has been touted for development for a number of years, including through a £55 million Westside scheme.
The major development was replaced with a project called City Centre West, which includes this new scheme and the £15.7m project on Victoria Street to create a new route for pedestrians through the city.
Box Space will use shipping containers to create a new urban park offering space for public events as well as somewhere to meet up for a drink and a bite to eat.
Similar developments have sprung up in other cities across the country and containers have already been used to build an entrance to the city’s open-air market.
The Box Space development will be on land that had been earmarked as part of a £300 million Summer Row shopping centre project, which crashed in 2011 after the banking crisis left it without financial backers.
Councillor Steve Evans, cabinet member for city environment and climate change at Wolverhampton Council, said: “This is a major milestone in the exciting transformation of the west of the city centre that will boost footfall and create invaluable employment and business opportunities.
“The demolition of vacant shops at 1-7a Cleveland Street and use of the adjoining Bell Street car park are part of long-held regeneration aspirations in the City Centre Area Action Plan.
“Together, they will form the site for the Box Space – a modern food, beverage and entertainment facility.
“These type of box spaces, using shipping container-style cabins, are hugely popular in other areas of the country such as Newcastle, London, Sheffield and Sunderland and will be a superb addition complementing Wolverhampton’s existing leisure, events and evening economy.”
The scheme, which includes demolition, land remediation of the site and the purchase of new shipping containers, will be funded through a combination of the Government’s Future High Streets Fund and council investment.
Wolverhampton Council has appointed a contractor to begin preparatory works next week ahead of machines moving in to remove the derelict shops on Cleveland Street.
The cleared site and car park sitting between Cleveland Street and Bell Street will then be used for the construction of the “box space”, which is set to open in 2024.
Leaders in the city hope it will support the official reopening of the Civic Halls in June this year, which will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city centre a year – and potentially boost the local economy by around £10 million.
It will also help in their aim to bring ‘city living’ to the centre of Wolverhampton, bringing new life to areas that are currently neglected and attracting new food, drink and leisure businesses in to make it more attractive to visitors.
