Frequently Asked Questions

It means that this development is by local people for local people. The team is made up of people who live in and around Hoylake and the surrounding areas. Over four years the project has undergone several rounds of community consultation and drew in over 6000 responses and comments and held community meetings to ask what people thought of the scheme.

From that consultation, several objectives were identified, including the need for more visitors to the town and more for those visitors to do. It was also clear that there was a need for jobs in the town, the need to provide training and to nurture local skills.

This led to the project revolving around the successful Hoylake Community Cinema and its evolution into a fully functioning two-screen state-of-the-art auditoria. It was then decided that if Hoylake high street was to be successfully reinvigorated we would need to add other hospitality offerings to satisfy the needs of the visitors, but more importantly to complement the existing businesses in the area. Bringing Beacon footfall to existing and emerging businesses was always a priority in our planning.

Hylgar Properties is a local real estate company that has been supporting regeneration in the Wirral area for 20 years. The company has redeveloped civic spaces, developed commercial property and domiciliary care. Hylgar’s premiere care home was reviewed as “outstanding” and a “flagship for residential homes” by the Care Quality Commission Inspectors. Hylgar has also worked with the NHS to develop a first-rate medical centre servicing the residents of Hoylake, Meols and West Kirby. Hylgar is a local business, invested in bringing in commercial acumen to fulfil the needs of the local community. 

The Beacon will create over 144 FTE jobs during construction and ongoing operation as well as immediate indirect jobs in our newly constructed units, plus more in the future, as we continue to support businesses in the town. These additional jobs will be created indirectly due to the increased tourism spend.

The scheme will generate more than £3 million annually in social and economic value in the local economy.  With a catchment of well over 300,000 people in the Wirral Ward area and over 1.4 million people on Merseyside, it is expected to attract tens of thousands of additional visitors each year.

This building will again be a very special asset for Hoylake, and we can feel the excitement growing. It will boost confidence in the local economy and provide some certainty for the future. It’s wonderful to uncover the interesting gems from the past, whether that’s the internal pillars or the wooden panelling or the intricate brickwork. We are aware of the responsibility to achieve a sympathetic and top-class restoration of the building while ensuring it is fit for purpose for its multiple new uses.​ We are making essential updates to the building such as new air conditioning and air extraction, for the food and beverage outlets, a new spiral staircase from the ground floor to the attic space and new plant decks and the sound-proofed walls for the cinema spaces alongside the original timber gallows brackets.

Hylgar Properties continue to own the site and will, therefore, be responsible for running the site and maintenance.

The Beacon Arts Village will be fully accessible. There are multiple access points to the site, and easy access is an important factor. There is also a lift to the first-floor cinema and space for wheelchair access.

As an environmentally conscious company, we encourage guests to use public transport; there is a train station and bus stop just a few yards away.

Alternatively, there are two large car parks nearby, plus ample high street parking, providing more than 250 spaces within a two-minute walk of the building.

The new development will not take away from local business and we have made careful considerations on how to provide a service that would complement the existing businesses, none of the plans in place directly compete with what is currently offered in Hoylake.