A PLAN to turn a historic former sugar refinery in Greenock into a technical and creative community hub has been awarded nearly £200,000.
The money from the Scottish Land Fund has been awarded to Creative Regeneration and will be used to purchase the Grade-B Listed, five-storey Glebe building and adjacent land at Crawfurd Street.
The project will have a focus on STEAM skills (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) and community learning.
There will be flexible accommodation, community spaces, office space, and creative and technical workshops to be delivered by business, third sector, and community partners.
Bruce Newlands, co-founder, Creative Regeneration, added: “Creative regeneration are delighted to receive support from the Scottish Land Fund for the acquisition of what promises to be a transformational project for Inverclyde.
“Not only will the project save the last remnant of the sugar refining industry in Greenock, providing interpretative background on the social history of the sugar industry over the last 200 years, but it will help create a world class community learning facility focused on a STEAM makerspace to encourage and support young innovators, a digital production space for the internationally recognised theatre group Vanishing Point, Retrofit Hub and a National Stained Glass School.”
More about the project on Creative Regeneration website
The grant is one of 15 totalling more than £1.5million awarded by the fund for community asset projects across Scotland.
Cara Gillespie, Scottish Land Fund committee chair, said: “The Scottish Land Fund Committee is delighted to fund diverse groups in both urban and rural environments to take ownership of key community assets, in order to provide the services that they have identified as being essential in their local areas.”
