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The main legal documents between the directors who are behind the scheme and the main contractors QA Construction have just been signed, with additional funding obtained from the Swedish bank Svenska Handelsbanken, which has a base in Grimsby.
Peter Dalton, joint managing director of the Grimsby Seafood Village Company, said: “We believe this, together with the modernisation plans for the fish market, signals the start of the regeneration of Grimsby Fish Docks. We have been working closely with our legal advisers Bridge McFarland and we have now set everything in motion to move onto the steel framework part of the village.”
He said he expected to have the first of 20 first phase fish processing units open and in operation around Christmas. They are all designed to a high environmental specification which will include solar panels and recycled water.
Mr Dalton said the seafood village was also open to fish firms outside Grimsby which may want to move to the port, home to the largest seafood processing centre in Europe. “We are certainly attracting a lot of interest both from our own merchants and from elsewhere,” he added.
He said the project had also caught the attention of seafood companies from Norway and Canada, two major fish producing countries which are hoping to break into the UK. It is hoped that the seafood village will eventually replace most of the Victorian fish houses centred around the old “Casbah” area of the fish docks. Stephen Oldridge, a partner with the legal firm Bridge McFarland said: “We are delighted to have been able to support this local project and the team are pleased to have played a part in securing much-needed investment in the fish docks."
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