A MULTI-MILLION-pound conference centre in Oxford is to be shut and the site redeveloped after owners declared it a “white elephant.”
The Oxford Conference Centre in Park End Street, which cost more than £4m to develop just two years ago, will close its doors for the final time in January next year after the new owners decided it was not a viable business.
And its sister firm, Apartments in Oxford, is also to be broken up, with the individual properties sold by next year.
Tony Nolan, Oxford-based partner with property developer WE Black, which bought the centre in February, said: “It is not giving us the revenue required to keep it going. Since we took it over we discovered there is a little interest in conferences in the city centre, particularly larger events, because of the lack of car parking.
“It has just turned out to be a white elephant.”
Mr Nolan added that the future development of the site was still being discussed in consultation with city council planners but there was “potential” for offices and possibly some retail units.
WE Black took on the site, which stretches along Park End Street and includes the Lava & Ignite nightclub, along with the 34 short-term let apartments behind it in a multi-million-pound deal just four months ago after acquiring its owner, the Cantay Group.
At the time Mr Nolan pledged to keep running the businesses and Cantay directors, husband and wife team Roger and Fafar Watts, were retained, along with the 26 staff. Now Mr Watts has been made redundant, with just one member of staff retained at the conference centre.
Mrs Watts continues to manage Apartments in Oxford but the properties which are offered on short lets will be sold and the business wound down.
Graham Jones, spokesman for the ROX group, which promotes business in Oxford, said: “There was always a question mark over whether it could succeed.”
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