SUCCESS! WE’VE DONE IT!

·   Builders will start work in the Generator next month - April 2024
·   We expect to open in Spring 2025
·   Major funding breakthrough just before Christmas

Our application for a major chunk of funding from the Community Ownership Fund (funded by UK Government / Powered by Levelling Up) came good on Friday 22nd December 2023, at the 11th hour, just before Christmas. 

This funding marked a crucial milestone in our journey and was the final piece of the puzzle for this stage of our project.

David Pagett-Wright, Chair of the Generator CIC, summarises the key moments of the past few months:

The £700K from the Community Ownership Fund unlocked so much: at last, we could sign contracts and Loughborough will now see builders in the Generator very soon.

Alongside this amazing breakthrough, we’ve been working incredibly hard behind the scenes for reasons we can now reveal. When we went to tender in July 2023, we discovered that recent, exceptional inflation in building costs had made our established plans no longer feasible. We hit quite a wall.

We had to re-work our plans, creating a two-stage approach, and then go back to our main funders to get their agreement. Thankfully, all are on board with this approach. Their approval, along with the funding that landed just before Christmas and the subsequent signing off of the building contract means that we can now say that we’ve done it. It’s full steam ahead for the Generator!

The recent lack of news belies the intense planning and negotiations over the past few months among the CIC board, Linedota Architects and Messenger, our building contractor, as we all worked so hard to reshape our plans and form the two-stage approach.

This newsletter aims to bring you up to date and we thank you for your patience as the project went quiet and we needed to regroup.

Newsletter content

How did we get here? The long and winding road

Our earliest meetings were in 2014; The Generator Loughborough Community Interest Company (CIC) was formalised in June 2015.

Since then, we’ve made many funding applications, some won, some lost.

Each funding application went with a detailed proposal, where everything was planned and costed. We are indebted to Christopher and Feona (Linedota Architects), and the design team, who have produced drawings and cost estimates for us through this time and contributed way beyond their brief to achieve this.

And there have been revisions along the way, to incorporate new ideas and to keep track with inflation.

So our funding pot has grown over these years, but this has not meant we could go to tender and start restoration. With this type of funding, none of the sources will release funds until the whole amount has been achieved, with fully approved plans, so it has been a waiting game. 

Following the Town Deal funding in 2022 and the Crowdfunder success in 2023, we believed the time was right to go out to tender in the summer of 2023, based on the latest plans and costings.

But when we did this, we found that our estimates had been blown out of the water by building cost inflation. A major setback.

We needed to reassess our strategy. A two-phase approach emerged as the solution, with the initial stage focusing on renovating and converting the building, and most importantly, opening its doors. To validate this approach, we developed new plans and estimated associated costs. Once confident in our rationale, we took the essential step of consulting with our existing funders, acknowledging that this adjustment altered the scope of their support. We are delighted to share that these consultations were successful, and we express our deep gratitude to our major funders - Town Deal, Community Ownership Fund, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Architectural Heritage Fund – for approving our proposal to implement the project in stages.

At the same time, we were awaiting news from our Community Ownership Fund application, which would add £700K to the funds. 

Messenger Construction Limited (our chosen building contractor who have worked on Taylor’s Bell Foundry) generously held to their tender price as we waited to find out if this key funding application (result expected in November) would come good and see us over the line. 

As already revealed above, this funding win was announced on Friday 22nd December 2023, an early Christmas present indeed! Even so, extensive negotiations and revisions were then needed to bring us within our £2.5m budget.

What an experience it has been, and how all the team has stuck together.

At last, we can say ‘We’ve done it.’ And now we can go public.

Building work and final opening dates

Messenger Construction will be doing the work and we hope for a start on site in April this year with an 11-month contract period.

We aim to open in Spring of 2025. We are beyond delighted.

Our staged proposal in detail

As the architectural aspects of the detailed design progressed, we realised that if the venue could meet the industry technical standard for sound and projection equipment, we would qualify to screen international events and mass appeal events. We could also produce and stream original content.

This would increase visitor numbers and widen the range of possible performances, enhancing our offer, potential profit and financial sustainability. It would also enable training opportunities for stage technician students (and benefit our adjoining commercial business).

In brief, our staged approach is to carry out the full renovation of the existing building in Stage 1, for which we have funding, and which will allow us to open.

Stage 1 includes vital structural work to the roof and basement, the installation of a new mezzanine, stairs and lift shaft, loos, the doors, windows and floor.

Stage 2 will complete the lift and include sound and heat insulation, the more sophisticated sound and projection engineering scheme, as outlined above, as well as specialist lights and other kit, plus secondary glazing and furniture. We will also install a bar.

We will keep a full record of all works, before, during and after, and also an information board updated to show where we are in the timeline of building activities.

All funding explained

The Generator needs £2.5m to deliver Stage 1 to renovate and convert the space into a multi-purpose cultural centre. We had £1.8m from the Town Deal, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Architectural Heritage Fund, Arts Council England, Charnwood Borough Council, and the Crowdfunder, with match funding from the Architectural Heritage Fund. The recent Community Ownership Fund added £700k. 

Stage 2 work depends on sponsorship, the outcome of our current grant application to Arts Council England and probably yet more fundraising.

Significant preliminary work has already been carried out. Specialist teams have removed asbestos and lead paint, and there’s also been the ‘soft strip’, where the building has been stripped back to its core. This revealed the original black and white tiles of the 1930s, hidden under floor panels for decades. 

1930s Tile salvage complete

A team of volunteers has already gone in and saved around 300 of the original tiles, after a weekend of hard work in January 2024. Unfortunately, a new floor must be laid because much of the original is taken up with patches of concrete where the generators were embedded and with drainage. Also, because the various spaces on the ground floor are at different levels and must be lined up. The salvaged tiles will make a wall display.

The volunteers also rescued many of the drain covers embossed with ‘Loughborough College’ (that we think may have been made by the original College students) for later display in the new venue.

OTHER NEWS: PLANS AND UPDATES

Programme of engagement

A programme of activities will coincide with the builders during 2024. It will involve local people in the history and heritage of the Generator and associated college buildings from the beginning of the 20th century. The development of the college constitutes a microcosm of the industrial, educational and social heritage of the town. 

The programme will engage and draw on the memories of many Loughborough residents and those further afield who taught or studied here. Our Open Days have attracted many who were delighted to share their experiences, and we expect many more.

Governance – welcome to Simon

We are delighted to welcome Simon Birchall to the Board of Directors at The Generator CIC. Simon brings years of theatre experience to our team, having recently retired as Technical Manager at Derby Theatre. All of us are volunteers, freely giving our time and effort.

We will undertake a full appraisal of our Board membership, organisation and governance so as to be fit for purpose when we open for business; and we will start to employ people who can take us into our new world as a cultural centre.

Many people are supporting us and want to volunteer and work with us. We need to find more formal ways in which we can encourage and enable local individuals and groups, businesses and institutions to engage with us, and to have their efforts recognised and reciprocated.

Loughborough Heritage Open Weekend

This year we will take part in the National Scheme of Heritage Open Days, as we have for the past few years. Loughborough has a thriving and well-networked history and heritage scene that meets twice yearly as the Loughborough Heritage Forum. 

Loughborough-based participants who traditionally hold Open Days, including the Generator, along with volunteers who provide guided history and heritage walks, have joined together and plan to present Loughborough Heritage Open Weekend on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September 2024.

Our Neighbourhood at the OAC

Our private sector, neighbouring establishment in the Old Art College lets space to creative industries and runs Public, a popular and thriving coffee shop. Fortunately, we share many values and aims with them so we will be working together in joint projects that benefit both sides. 

Looking back at the Crowdfunder

We launched our Crowdfunder on Wednesday 1st March 2023. We had 31 days to achieve £25k, which would be doubled by match funding from the Architectural Heritage Fund. We sought donations great and small from all who valued the renovation of the Generator and our plans for a multi-purpose cultural centre. 

With the help of Angela Montague at Push Creativity, we created a brilliant video and were shameless in seeking contributions from family, friends and wider networks.

We made it, with a multitude of donations, and particularly two major ones from local firms 19 Limited and Ventus Enterprises Limited (who will have their names commemorated in the building).

Equally striking and heart-warming, were the comments made by those donating, speaking of their happy memories of teaching, studying and exhibiting in the Generator, expressing heartfelt support for the project and driving us on.

Visit our Crowdfunder page and watch the video here:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/generatorlboro

We have many people to thank

Please look at Newsletter #4 where we credit and thank everyone who has worked for The Generator since 2015.

https://www.generatorloughborough.com/newsletter-4-july-2022