Video: First Look Inside ‘OW Peoples Market’ – The New Arts Hub

The first computer generated ‘fly through’ of the town’s new arts and market space in the former Peoples Market has been made public.

Yesterday morning the Town Centre Forum was presented a view of the new OW Peoples Market also known as the Arts Hub, and we requested if the video could be made public – which has been placed online by Wrexham Council.

The meeting was given a potted history of the Peoples Market, and how research from the Quarterbridge report had said it was ‘not viable to have the three markets’ and that the Peoples Market ‘was too big to exist as a market alone’ and thus a change – at the time unspecified – was required.

The planning story has been much documented, and the starting point of just £700k of Vibrant and Viable Places funding was explained with further multi million pound funding then accessed.

A year ago it was confirmed that Arts Council Wales had approved funding of £2.3 million towards the development, with Wrexham Council contributing £1.5million. A further £500,000 has been put towards the scheme from from the VVP fund.

Slides presented to the Town Centre Forum outlined the ongoing commitment by Wrexham Council to fund deficits for five years minimum but possibly up to ten years – branded previously the cost of culture – although the meeting was told ‘it has got to be sustainable as a business’.

The meeting was brought up to date with the development plans, with walls already being knocked through and preparatory work being carried out.

One rumour was also knocked on the head, with talk in town that Costa or Cafe Nero were being lined up for a cafe spot in the development. This was put to bed with the meeting told ‘we would rather go with local ventures, it is about local and community activity’.

Hints to the launch date were made with a soft launch expected in early 2018 and a ‘big bang wow’ launch in April 2018.

The project was described as being within budget and within timescales as it stands, with a final meeting with contractors Wynne Construction scheduled for later this week.

The below ‘fly through’ video gave the first insight to how the insides would look, with the end results being described as the lower cost options – so the roof cinema and viewing platforms from earlier plans are not in it – but the meeting was told there is potential for future ‘enhancements’ and accessing future VVP funding or similar to expand the offer.

The Council Officer told the meeting their feel was things were ‘really positive and optimistic and on track’.

We have also enquired if the slides presented will be placed in the public domain, and if they are we will update / link to them.