An historic Belfast building which has lain empty for over a decade is set to be transformed into a hub for artists and the creative industries.
The Shankill Mission building on the city's Shankill Road closed in 2009 and had been earmarked for redevelopment into a 48 bedroom 4 star hotel.
Now, the building is undergoing a transformation as part of plans by Vault Artists Studios to move out of their current Tower Street home.
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Speaking to Belfast Live, Neal Campbell from Vault Artists Studios explained that when they had signed the lease on their Tower Street location, they knew it would only be temporary as it was set to be redeveloped to make way for social housing.
"We were informed about a year ago that our time in Tower Street was coming to an end as the site is owned by a housing association and we knew it was earmarked for social housing," he said.
"We put together a group of our staff and some of our artists who are based here to search for new premises and there was a lot of phone calls, a lot of dead ends and a lot of false starts.
"The Shankill Mission building fell into our lap thanks to a contact at the Lower Oldpark Community Association who had seen a post on social media where we had said we were looking for a new building and he had a conversation with someone in the Greater Shankill Partnership who approached the Argyle Business Centre who own the building.
"The next day I met Drennan McBride who is Chief Executive of Argyle Business Centre and Rowan Davison from the Greater Shankill Partnership, had a walk through the building and 45 minutes later we had an agreement in principle."
As the building has been empty for so long, an extensive renovation project is currently underway so that it is ready for Vault to move in.
"Argyle Business Centre took responsibility for fixing up the roof and a few structural issues which needed sorted and the work on that is well underway," Neal continued.
"There has also been very significant work undertaken to restore the plumbing and upgrade the electrical installation right though the building alongside the removal of asbestos and an upgrade of the fire detection and safety equipment.
"In addition to the work undertaken by Argyle Business Centre, Vault have contributed to the work through our own reserves and some funded we received from Belfast City Council last year to help facilitate our move.
"We have also started to fundraise through GoFundMe. The work that we are doing is the bare minimum to make sure that the building is dry and safe for our artists to move into the building.
"Beyond that, significant work will need to be taken throughout the year to get the building fully functioning and we will be looking at how we fund that going forward as we are on a tight timescale and have to vacate our Tower Street building by the end of May."
While the Shankill Mission building is not large enough to cover the breadth of services offered by Vault Studios, the group have also secured a prominent City Centre location with more details to be released soon.
"Tower Street was initially Rupert Stanley College, then it was BIFHE and subsequently Belfast Met so it was a really substantial site with studio space for over 100 artists, two dance studios, rehearsal space, a gallery and theatre," Neal added. "We also have the Belfast Tool Library and community space.
"Moving on we knew it would be difficult to find a building which would accommodate all of that and decided we would have to separate our operations across two buildings.
"By April we should be ready to move 30 of our studio holders into the Shankill Mission building and we will have a really nice dance studio, a multipurpose rehearsal and community space.
"On the ground floor we have a space for small performances and gigs. Then we will have four street facing retail units. The Belfast Tool Library will be operating out of two of those.
"Over time we are keen that the other units become community assets and one was formally a café space. People have very vivid memories of going there for a fry and that would offer a great opportunity to engage with the local community."
Neal added that Vault Artist Studios are excited to begin working with the Shankill community and to work in collaboration with them."
To donate to the Vault Artist Studios fundraising campaign, CLICK HERE.
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