£400k guide price for Cleethorpes Pier at auction

CLEETHORPES Pier will go to auction, with a guide price of £400,000 in January – but the owner will consider managing the venue himself if there is not sufficient interest.

The owner of the iconic landmark, Bryn Ilsley, bought the pier in May 2010 and spent £200,000 refurbishing it, but has now decided to put it to auction with Swindells Auctioneers.

It will go under the hammer at the end of January, with a guide price of £400,000. It comes after leaseholders Alistair Clugston and Hugo Marfleet decided to close the doors of the venue, for unknown reasons, earlier this month.

They are the second leaseholders to give up the venue in as many years, after Steve Calladine and Stephen Grevitt surrendered their licence in September 2010 – days before an official review into crime and disorder.

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Mr Ilsley, who has had various interests in the area including Wold View Fisheries in Claxby, still has so much faith in the pier that he will take it on himself if there is not sufficient interest – something he considered doing in 2010, as reported.

He said: “It’s a great venue but the economic climate is quite difficult, so if it is not successful at auction, I will put my own management team in and run it myself – something I have been tempted to do before.

“My phone lit up like a Christmas tree as soon as people heard the previous leaseholders had gone, but I’m not sure if I want to risk people coming in and leaving a year later.

“I have some other interests in the town and need to dispose of some and that is the main reason I am taking the pier to auction.”

Swindells Auctioneers auction manager Tina Edwards believes the venue, which has a capacity for 1,800 people, is “extremely versatile” and “a huge opportunity” for a wide range of businesses.

She said: “We are only in the early stages of marketing the building but it is extremely vast and could be a real asset for a single business or a syndicate of businesses.

“It could be an asset to someone local, a London firm or an American company, who often like to acquire things that are traditionally British – and what’s more traditional than an English seaside pier?

“The pier has been a nightclub and restaurant for so long and it works, but people are becoming increasingly family-orientated so there is the chance to turn it into something completely different and be a real feature of the area.”

Keep checking your Grimsby Telegraph for updates.