Today sees the deadline for bids to take on the leasehold or freehold of the Ventnor Winter Gardens.
At January’s Ventnor Town Council meeting, John Metcalfe, the Deputy Director for Economy and Tourism, told the meeting that they (IWC) would widely market the tender process as they were “keen to advertise the building”, stating that they didn’t want a “narrow tender process”.
How “keen to advertise the building”?
If you’re wondering what that means, the council press office tell us that apart from on the council Website, the tender was advertised in the County Press and with Leisure Opportunities Magazine (and put on the LOM Website).
We let the council know that we’d be happy for them to advertise it on VentnorBlog, thinking that our great search result ranking and extensive readership would be just the sort of thing they’d jump at. They declined.
John Metcalfe said at the January meeting (prior to advertising) that they’d already received five expressions of interest. We also know of at least two groups who have been working hard to put together business plans and proposals.
Delegated decision on preferred bidder
Cabinet member for Economy, Tourism, Leisure, Planning and Property, Cllr George Brown, will be making a delegated decision by the end of May as to who the preferred bidder is.
If you’re wondering what sort of terms are on offer, we thought that you’d like to be in the loop and have the ability to check out the documents sent out to the interested parties. We’ve put them below.
Best of luck to all who put their bids in to the council, we look forward to seeing the venue open again very soon.
Heads of Terms Long Leasehold – Winter Gardens
Freehold Heads of Terms – Winter Gardens
Image: © IWC
