September 13, 2018 4.09 pm This story is over 66 months old

Council to spend £400k on Gainsborough build

The council hopes to eventually begin making money on the building.

5-7 Market Place, Gainsborough. Photo: Google.

Almost £400,000 is set to be spent to save a Gainsborough building from falling ‘further into disrepair’ and potentially make money from it.

West Lindsey District Councillors on Thursday, are being asked to approve a £387,300 spend to repair and convert 5-7 Market Place into three flats and a ground floor shop.

The plan is then to sell the flats and rent out the business at market rates, with a predicted return of £55,727 over 20 years – if the council can get grant funding from Heritage Lottery alongside.

A report before councillors says: “If this building is not renovated it will fall into further disrepair, this will cause harm to the historic market place but also threaten any future grant opportunities for the WLDC including a potential £1.8m from HLF for townscape heritage.

“It is acknowledged that the project is relatively high risk in terms of both viability and financial outlook due to the nature of it being a renovation project and therefore many unknowns have to be considered.”

The report says if the flats don’t sell, they could be rented out with an annual income of around £6,300.

The property was bought by WLDC in 2013 for £172,000.

It currently costs £400 a year in maintenance costs, plus any urgent repairs.

The report says a £19,000 spend is already needed for structural repairs to make the building safe.

The officer’s report says the property has been on the market for two years at £175,000, however, the most recent offer was £50,000 minus the structural works needed.