BAKERS Bar in Southend town centre is due to reopen next month after undergoing a £2million refurbishment.
The club, in Alexandra Street, closed on June 28 and will be renamed Element. It will feature top-of-the-range sound and lighting equipment and there will be capacity for 1,500 clubbers spread over three floors.
The refit has taken over a year to plan and the owners have taken inspiration from as far afield as Ibiza, Spain and California. Club bosses, as well as council chiefs, are hoping the refurbished club will boost tourism in the town.
Ben Levy, company director, said: “The plan was to offer our customers something new and exciting which cannot be found anywhere else. But we wanted to maintain the things everyone loved about Bakers.
“We feel the new club will boost the town’s night-time economy and will bring people in from far and wide. This, we feel, will benefit the town as a whole.
“This project is set to give our customers something to talk about with some unique features.
“At this stage, we’re not revealing anything. We’re keeping it very much under wraps.”
My Levy said 50 builders had been working seven days a week to carry out the refur- bishment since the club closed.
John Clayton, of Essex Chamber of Commerce, said: “Recession doesn’t affect businesses equally. If this is a successful business, good luck to them.
“Refurbishing a business is a way of attracting people to it. Southend has a very varied economy and nightclubs are one aspect of it. People like to go to places which look nice. It is a business where you have got to keep spending.”
The launch party will be held at the end of September.
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