Blackpool’s Art B&B is to be sold after going out of business earlier this year – with Blackpool Council set to recoup all its investment in the project.
The council bought the former Ocean Hotel on the Promenade between Banks Street and Springfield Road for £203,000 in 2017, with the newly renovated guesthouse opening in 2019. Rooms were each designed as unique art installations, while work was commissioned from more than 30 artists.
The venue also hosted workshops and famously installed a fried egg art installation on its rear exterior wall which is still there. It aimed to help regenerate the area and support the town’s arts community, with the bed and breakfast being run as a community interest company.
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Funding totalling £1.3m was secured towards the Art B&B project from sources including the Coastal Communities Fund and Arts Council England, Community Business Fund, Tudor Trust and the Clore Duffield Prize Fund.
It also received £73,000 from the government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund during the Covid pandemic. But in October 2022 it was revealed the Art B&B would be closing due to a drop in bookings which had made the business unsustainable.
Now the building is to be sold to the tenant and then sold to a third party. A council report setting out the decision says the local authority will recoup its full investment.
While the financial details have not been disclosed, the report says: “The council approved a loan to enable the completion of the capital investment required when all grant funding sources were exhausted. The hotel was subsequently leased to the Art B&B CIC (community interest company) and renovated and operated as the Art B&B until March 2023 when the business ceased trading.
“Subsequently the tenant has exercised ‘the option to purchase’ clause agreed within the original lease agreement. The tenant has secured a third-party buyer for the hotel, with adequate funds to ensure that the council is able to recover all its original acquisition and associated costs, along with all outstanding monies owed in loan funding and any rent arrears.
“The balance of any funds will be retained by Art B&B CIC to settle its other creditors and close the business.”
