There are two parts to the money question.
Firstly, we need funding to buy the long lease from the current leaseholder. We are obtaining a new valuation, and we are aware of the figure that the leaseholder is looking for. At present this sum is confidential while we build our bid and negotiate with the leaseholder.
Secondly, we'll be fundraising to reopen and maintain the building. We recognise that projects like this can be very expensive and so our approach is going to be
- Pragmatic- not attempting to make the building look 'like new'
- Phased- bringing parts of the building into use as soon as possible
- 'Outside the box'- exploring unconventional solutions for building services
- Community based- making use of volunteers, commercial partners and social value input to keep costs down
We'll be updating this answer as our plans develop.