Bar and café plan for former Army & Navy Store premises (From York Press)
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Bar and café plan for former Army & Navy Store premises in Fossgate
8:07am Tuesday 19th February 2013 in News
By Gavin Aitchison, gavin.aitchison@thepress.co.uk
The old Army & Navy Store premises at the top of Fossgate, York
ONE of the biggest empty shops in York city centre looks set to be turned into a bar and café.
Council planners have approved proposals to convert the old Army & Navy Stores at the top of Fossgate, which closed last summer after 93 years.
Businesswoman Rachel Greaves, of Cleethorpes, said she wants to cater for groups such as “professionals, thirty-somethings, older families and beer connoisseurs”.
In a letter to the council, she said: “The business will not be aimed at the youth market but will be an organic café and bar with speciality beers.
The emphasis will be to create a relaxed atmosphere where people will generally be served alcohol at tables.”
She stressed she was not looking to open a traditional pub or nightclub-style bar, and said she did not envisage noise problems.
There will be a small retail area on the ground floor, mainly for bottled beers, and the rest of the ground and first floors will be for food and drink. The second floor and attic will be for storage.
Ms Greaves’s planning agent has told the council that the venue will close at midnight, rather than 3am as first suggested, and said only background music would be played.
The application to change the use of the building has been approved by a council planning committee but Ms Greaves still requires listed building consent before she can alter the building significantly, said committee vice-chairman Coun Ian Gillies.
The changing nature of the beer market in recent years has seen increased demand for non-traditional venues, leading to a proliferation of continental-style cafés and more modern pubs such as The House Of The Trembling Madness in Stonegate in York and The Attic above Café Harlequin in King’s Square.
Guildhall planning panel had objected to the latest application, saying York could not afford to lose more city-centre retail space and plans for further coffee houses and restaurants should be discouraged.
Ms Greaves said in her application that it would create five full-time and seven part-time jobs.
Comments(17)
GooseTrackLane
says...
8:32am Tue 19 Feb 13
Capt. Dobie
says...
8:57am Tue 19 Feb 13
GooseTrackLane wrote:...OR another charity shop...
the only sort of shop we could have expected was another Poundland-type retailer, so this sounds great to me.
Can't believe it's gone, but it's yet another 'Retail Headstone' because if the changing consumer market. Realistically, what else you could you turn it into? Not a prime location like Parliament or Coney St, so you wouldn't get a big name store in there.
I still wince when I see the converted Scott's the Butchers...
Woody G Mellor
says...
9:12am Tue 19 Feb 13
Ps.
I would rather see cafes, charity shops, restaurants and bars than empty 'retail' space.
bob the builder
says...
9:34am Tue 19 Feb 13
Ignatius Lumpopo
says...
10:00am Tue 19 Feb 13
And how will attracting 'beer connoisseurs' affect trade in the Blue Bell next door?
Ignatius Lumpopo
says...
10:01am Tue 19 Feb 13
And how will attracting 'beer connoisseurs' affect trade in the Blue Bell next door?
Woody G Mellor
says...
10:04am Tue 19 Feb 13
Ignatius Lumpopo wrote:Don't understand the first line of your post.
The ideal bar/café to change the Army & Navy Stores into has to be the NAAFI, surely?
And how will attracting 'beer connoisseurs' affect trade in the Blue Bell next door?
As for the second. Surely it will benifit the Bell due to bringing more real ale drinkers into the area who enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.
NickPheas
says...
10:15am Tue 19 Feb 13
Ignatius Lumpopo wrote:Hopefully not too much. There have been plenty of times when the Blue Bell has been so crowded that they've been turning people away, so probably a neighbour in a similar space will just give them somewhere to send them.
The ideal bar/café to change the Army & Navy Stores into has to be the NAAFI, surely?
And how will attracting 'beer connoisseurs' affect trade in the Blue Bell next door?
metsaagain
says...
10:29am Tue 19 Feb 13
MrsHoney
says...
11:34am Tue 19 Feb 13
A grown up place that isn't an awful winebar, sounds great to me.
working class tory
says...
8:30pm Tue 19 Feb 13
As a regular of the Blue Bell, it seems that the other poster's on here don't understand what a wonderful place it is, and with a knowledge of this classic pub's clientele I can guarantee the proposed new venture next door would not affected it's business at all (though it might affect the landlords sleeping).
PKH
says...
10:53pm Tue 19 Feb 13
Magicman!
says...
3:02am Thu 21 Feb 13
All that seems to open up now is either a 'clearance' store, pound store, charity shop, mobile phone shop, costa bomb, or some random eatery/drinkery.
ChilliPepper87
says...
3:42pm Thu 21 Feb 13
Magicman! wrote:I think it's the high profit margins (very high) for alcohol that will allow these places to open. I think for the freehold it was more than 350,000 (it was on a businesses for sale website so not confidential info!).. so you need that profit to survive. Very difficult for an independent business to make that. Shame.
Another eat-and-drinkery... oh yes of course, York has a real genuine shortage of places to eat and drink doesn't it?!
All that seems to open up now is either a 'clearance' store, pound store, charity shop, mobile phone shop, costa bomb, or some random eatery/drinkery.
Woody G Mellor
says...
4:15pm Thu 21 Feb 13
Magicman! wrote:In today's climate most 'retail' premises are not financially viable.
Another eat-and-drinkery... oh yes of course, York has a real genuine shortage of places to eat and drink doesn't it?!
All that seems to open up now is either a 'clearance' store, pound store, charity shop, mobile phone shop, costa bomb, or some random eatery/drinkery.
Would you prefer to see it boarded up rather than being another clearance' store, pound store, charity shop, mobile phone shop, costa bomb, or some random eatery/drinkery?
Your ilk do York no favours.
eeoodares
says...
11:45am Sun 3 Mar 13
Magicman! wrote:Be interesting to see you put your money where your mouth is. Why do you not buy it? £450000 for the freehold followed by a massive refit and then you can open your own retail business!
Another eat-and-drinkery... oh yes of course, York has a real genuine shortage of places to eat and drink doesn't it?!
All that seems to open up now is either a 'clearance' store, pound store, charity shop, mobile phone shop, costa bomb, or some random eatery/drinkery.
MrsHoney says...
8:27am Tue 19 Feb 13
I know some people might not be happy that York is turning into a big food court but if people aren't shopping then at least it keeps the local economy going. I look forward to it opening.