The owner of a historic arcade has revealed plans to transform the venue into an "iconic" resort that could be at the heart of New Brighton's regeneration.
The New Palace Arcade and Adventureland has been in the Wilkie family for five generations, though its current landlord, Dave Wilkie, is the first member of his family to own the venue outright. The last few years have seen a lot of speculation about the future of the 1930s building, but Dave has now revealed plans to redevelop the site into hotels, apartments and a state-of-the-art arcade.
He said: "I’m working at the moment to a put together a pre-planning application. I'm working closely with the local authorities to help the regeneration of New Brighton.
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"As part of New Brighton’s strategy there’s got to be 315 new houses produced in New Brighton alone over the coming years so I'm hoping to tick off about 120 apartments on this site.
"I'm hoping to redevelop and keep the basement because the foundations are extremely well built. The ground floor of the complex is going to be leisure and I'm going to take over that after it’s all redeveloped."
Dave, 65, wants to create a brand new vintage-style arcade fitted with a host of indoor rides, as well as a miniature village depicting New Brighton in the early twentieth century. He also revealed plans to build a hotel on the site, and told the ECHO the Hilton Hotels group has expressed an interest.
Dave said: "New Brighton was a massive holiday resort for Liverpool in the 18th and 19th century. 10,000 people used to come over here on the ferries from Liverpool. We had the pier and the tower. It was an amazing place so I want to reproduce that in a model village."
The 65-year-old said that any remaining space could be rented out to food outlets, like Nando's. Although Dave said there's been plenty of interest in the site, the arcade is very much "open for business" and will continue to operate in its current form until next September.
Dave hopes that redeveloping the New Palace site will help to restore New Brighton's reputation as a booming holiday destination. He said: "There’s a lot of interest in the site because it’s the prime site in New Brighton.
"I want a developer who’s going to create something iconic for the area. I’m also hoping to move the fairground down and put it on a different site in New Brighton because it would not be a seaside resort without a fairground. I’ve got the infrastructure to create something a bit special in New Brighton, with the council’s support.
“I want to try and develop the area to bring as many people to New Brighton as possible."
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