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It has been rising out of the ground on one of the most prominent plots in the city centre for the past two years – having been in the pipeline for more than five.
Yet when some passers-by spot Preston’s now nearly complete ‘Animate’ cinema and leisure complex, they are still prompted to ask: “What’s that?”.
The perhaps surprising poser is one that has been asked several times of Peter Hutton in the week since he became responsible for the striking two-storey building, construction of which is now complete.
Read more: New modern and heritage-style lighting to improve vibe of area around Harris Museum
As regional facilities manager for Sanderson Weatherall – the firm appointed to look after Preston City Council’s prized £45m asset in the long term – Peter’s first job is overseeing the final phase of the development as the businesses that will soon be trading from the nine, currently cavernous units, start to move in.
He admits that the process of fitting out the premises is a “bit full on” – but is determined to ensure that “everybody is working together” in order to get the long-awaited facility open on time next year.
The exact date on which the attraction will – or is due to – welcome its first visitors is being kept under wraps for now, with the city authority committing only to a ballpark timeframe of “early spring”.
The site’s cinema and bowling alley are the first two ventures on which internal work has begun since so-called “practical completion” of the building itself earlier this week. As the most complex of the Animate offerings to bring to life, they will require a little more time spent on them than the scheme’s five restaurants and combined street food hub and cocktail bar, which will all start to take shape during December.
The only unit whose future has not yet been finalised is the one reserved for a competitive games outlet, like an escape room. As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed last week, the council may yet decide to split that space in two in order to create an additional restaurant and a smaller activity area, as it continues the search for its final tenant.
For John Chesworth, chair of the private sector-led Preston Partnership, the project is proof positive that the city “can deliver something on this scale” – and will give confidence to potential investors in other future schemes that ”things can happen in Preston”.
He added: “One of the things that the [real estate] market was probably looking at was [whether they can] get the rents at the level that they they need to get them at – and I think that the pre-lets on Animate will send a message out to the market that if developers build quality…then there is a market for them in Preston.”
Asked whether he believes the development will be a boon to the city centre as a whole – and reverse the recent trend towards empty retail spaces – he said Animate is primarily intended to reimagine the reasons people travel into town.
“There are empty units in Manchester…[and] in all towns and cities – that’s a retail thing as opposed to a Preston thing.
“But Preston’s doing something about it, which is repurposing why people will come into the city centre – moving away from retail [and towards] entertainment and culture.
“It’s a brand new building, of scale, in the centre of Preston – we’ve not had one of those for decades. [Having] something to do in the city is absolutely fundamental to place-making.
“We hope this is the start of a new and revived city centre for Preston,” added John, pointing also to the revamped Harris Museum and forthcoming Youth Zone, both of which are also set to open next year.
Meanwhile, the city council’s cabinet member for community wealth building, Valerie Wise, says one of the most obvious beneficiaries of the Animate complex will be the indoor market that stands alongside it.
“I know that some of the traders hope to extend their hours and I can see people…doing some shopping in the market [and] then coming maybe to play bowls [or go to] the cinema and have a lovely meal,” Cllr Wise said.
She told the LDRS that while it was important for the site to boast big, well-known brands like the restaurant chains that will dominate it, she believes there will be enough on offer to ensure a point of difference from similar offerings elsewhere – and give Animate a distinctly Preston flavour.
“I think people are used to going to named restaurants, but…the street food market, I’m sure, will thrive – and maybe people who work in the city centre will come there to get their lunch.
“And it’s great that the cinema has eight screens of different sizes so that they can show maybe more specialist firms on the smaller screens…as well as the movies that everybody wants to go and see.”
Cllr Wise also refuted the suggestion that moving the centre of gravity of Preston to the cultural quarter around Animate would be detrimental to other parts of the city.
“We’re doing up the rest of the city centre – if you walk down Friargate, it’s been transformed and we’re hoping to do more transformation with our Levelling Up Fund [projects].
“I think it’s important to have a cultural centre, but also, there’s lots of great shops – and we’ve spent money [and] we’re spending money improving the rest of the city centre.”
On the subject of money, the price tag for the council-owned development means there is a lot riding on its success. More than £6.5m for the scheme is coming out of Preston’s allocation from the last government’s Towns Fund and a contribution from the City Deal – but much of the remainder will be covered by borrowing taken on by the town hall.
However, Cllr Wise says she is “proud” that the complex is in local authority control – and confident that it will be “really successful”.
“I’m sure people will flock here,” she said.
Read more: See more redevelopment news in and around Preston
A tight construction squeeze
The tightly enclosed location of the Animate complex – right on the edge of the Ringway dual carriageway and just yards from Preston’s indoor market and the nearby the Lime House building – meant constructing it posed something of a challenge.
Matt Friedmann, project manager for Eric Wright Construction – which delivered the scheme together with Maple Grove Developments – said timing was everything on what he described as an occasionally “tricky” scheme.
“We’ve had to be very regimented in the sequence [of the work], because of the scale and depth of the building. Cranage has always been a difficult one, especially when we were building the frame.
“It [took] a big push to get the frame up [and] we had to sequence that in a manner [that allowed us to] build our way out, basically. Once we got the frame up, it crippled our ability to be able to get to the further and most inner parts of the building.”
Nevertheless, he said the 97 weeks that he had spent on the physical construction had been “satisfying” – and had left Preston with a building that was “not your run of the mill”.
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