Southampton City Council has entered into an agreement with Oxford Innovation with plans to create a new media centre in the heart of city dedicated to creative arts and media businesses. Around 300 new jobs will be created if the scheme goes ahead.
Plans include the a 2,500sq m site which will sit above the Frog and Parrot pub in Above Bar Street and next door in an empty shop unit. It is understood that Oxford Innovation will market the site to potential businesses and manage it, while Enterprise House Developments will be the developer in charge of revolutionising the empty units at 164-176 Above Bar.
The units at the front of the site would be used by creative industries such as graphics firms, while the space at the rear would be turned into flats where those working in the building could live.
The offices above the Frog and Parrot pub, formerly the Old Fat Cat, have been empty since the Tyrrell and Green department store was demolished in 2010.
Council chiefs hope the deal will bring in much-needed income for the authority, while also fitting into the 25-year city centre masterplan to deliver £3billion of investment and more than 24,000 jobs.
If the deal goes ahead, it will form part of the city’s cultural quarter and sit next to the arts complex which will contain an art gallery, two theatres, a dance studio, a media and film facility and educational spaces, as well as bars, restaurants and 38 flats.