The pay-to-play future of the seafront site of Rhyl’s Savoy Amusements looks even more uncertain after it was revealed that over £5m could be allocated to bring it back into use.
Cabinet members from Denbighshire County Council will meet this week to an initial offer of £2.5 million to allow it to purchase the former Savoy Hotel and Queens Market buildings, with an in principle commitment to another £2.5m of funding to assist with the sites’ redevelopment.
Savoy Amusements, which consisted of an AGC, FEC and ten pin bowling centre before it closed down a couple of seasons ago, had been housed in the ground floor of the Savoy Hotel building.
The council’s plans for the vacant hotel and amusement arcade will see it work with a development partner to find a new use for the site. Its proposal involves removing the buildings and returning the site back to use to provide “premises which will enable the mix of uses in the town centre to be diversified, providing it with a sustainable and economically viable future”.
Councillor Hugh Evans OBE, Leader of Denbighshire, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the ongoing regeneration of Rhyl by bringing the partially derelict properties in the town centre back into use.
“This would provide opportunities for new jobs and business growth, as well as stimulating the private sector to undertake further investment in the town.
“This would be a significant project that would form part of the overall masterplan for Rhyl and would complement the works going on or having been completed in Rhyl.
“This would be on top of the private sector investment in new hotels and restaurants in the town.”
If, as seems likely, the rebuilt Savoy Amusements site is used for an alternative leisure purpose, it will take the number of family arcades in Rhyl down to five.
