Community shares
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CHT Pioneer Community Share Offer
Smethwick, England, United Kingdom
Aim
This pioneer community share offer is to raise funding the Trust urgently needs to resource its work at a critical point in its development
We want to bring the Chance Glassworks back to life. It has an amazing industrial past and it can play a significant role in supporting the community in the future!
The Trust was set up 5 years ago with the intention of saving the Chance Glassworks and bringing it back into use.
We have 3 charitable aims:
- To be a vehicle for rescuing and regenerating heritage assets in the locality
- Educating people about heritage - whatever that might mean to them
- Creating jobs, training and upskilling opportunities for local people
The history of Chance Brothers a world leaders in glass
The Chance Brothers Glassworks was once the largest glass manufacturer in the world and one of the most important industrial employers in the Midlands for more than 150 years, playing a significant role in shaping Smethwick and the wider area. Chance Brothers provided all of the glass for the construction of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition in 1851, they made the faces of Big Ben and installed glass in the Houses of Parliament. Without doubt their most significant achievement was to install some 2,300 lighthouse lanterns around the world !
Just a few more of their achievements:
- Produced the first cathode ray tubes for John Logie Baird
- Invented the first heat proof glass
- Produced the first sunglasses
- Invented fibreglass
THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF CHANCE GLASSWORKS
The Chance Glassworks still exists today but it is rapidly deteriorating. This is your opportunity to get involved involve in a really exciting, large scale regeneration project and to help in saving this important industrial heritage site for the nation and so that once again it can benefit the local social and economic community
We are launching a community share offer on 29th February 2020. We hope that this will raise between £110,000 and £250,000 towards the development costs. A community share offer means that people and organisations who want to support Chance Heritage Trust to develop the Chance Glassworks can become members of the Community Benefit Society and buy “shares” in it.
Community shares are withdrawable shares in the society. Members can withdraw their initial investment and any interest that might have accrued but only if the organisation is in a financial position to do so. The shares do not increase in value and cannot be sold on to other people. For more information about the community share offer our share offer document can be found attched and on our website
Our Vision is to:
'Regenerate Chance Glass Works to protect and celebrate its highly significant industrial heritage to act as a beacon of hope and create a new vibrant, urban community generating employment, training, learning and leisure opportunities for all'
The Trust is a Charitable Community Benefit Society. A Charitable Community Benefit Society is owned and run by its members on a basis of one member one vote. All profits must be put back into the business or invested to further its objectives. We are not a government or council initiative.
We have prepared an initial masterplan which aims to guide the long-term development of the site on a phased basis, forming the basis of a strategy for discussions with potential funding partners, including Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (BCLEP) and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the West Midlands Combined Authority, private investors and other stakeholders.
Our plans are to:
- Restore the existing 8 heritage buildings for a mix of residential, leisure, cultural, education and employment use;
- Create an ‘urban village’ of new homes, leisure, cultural, education and enterprise facilities;
- Construct a 30m high lighthouse commemorating the site’s heritage and acting as the physical manifestation of the vision for the site – a beacon of hope; and
- Reinstate the former canal arms reconnecting the Glassworks with the canals bringing animation to the site through water and boats.
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NEXT
Our next step is to employ a project manager. To date the work has been carried out by the Trustees, but we realise that we need a dedicated person with experience in this area of work to bring it to fruition. Following that, we need to commission series of reports on the state of the site, including dilapidations, structural and ground condition. These reports will enable us to produce a fully costed business plan which is critical to moving the project forward.
We estimate that the early development costs for the first build phase are a minimum of £414,000 and the first build phase capital costs will be £18m. We are in the process of making an application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the restoration costs needed for the early development costs for first build phase. This application will be submitted in June 2020 with a decision expected in September.
If the bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund is unsuccessful the project will still go ahead but it will take longer as we will need to continue to fundraise.
Looking forward we recognise that with such a large regeneration scheme we need assistance from strategic stakeholders in the area. We are already in discussions with the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, the WM Combined Authority and private developers amongst others. It is broadly acknowledged by all interested parties the only way this scheme will move forward is through any commercial development partnership working alongside the Trust. As a charitable organisation, we can access funding streams commercial developers cannot.
SO WHY ARE WE DOING A SHARE OFFER?
We are doing a share offer for two reasons:
Community ownership; we want to practice what we preach. We want to put in place the community ownership of Chance Heritage Trust as soon as possible. Through this share offer, local people, people who have an interest in the site such as former employees and those who want to support the preservation of historical sites will be able to become custodians of the Trust.
Raising capital; we need to raise working capital to take us to the point of being able to start the work of building the first phase of the site. The money raised through a share issue will be used to match any grant awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The costs of the project manager will be jointly funded by the share issue and grants.
If our application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund is unsuccessful we will use more of the money raised towards the necessary investigations and surveys and we will only be able to employ the Project Manager on a part time basis, consequently the project will take longer to deliver.
Phase one of the development includes accommodation and enterprise and educational space. It will create much needed jobs, training opportunities in an area listed in the top 3% of the most deprived wards in the country. We have assembled a diverse Board of Directors with the range of skills and the background experience we need (see our Shares off Document for Details)
Following the early development stage, we will move into the delivery stage. If our initial application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund has been successful, we will be in position to make a second- round application. This application would support the costs of acquiring the property, progressing the capital works to restore and reuse the Seven Storey Building, and continuing to deliver the heritage activity plan.
The cost of this phase will be in the region of £6m and we expect this work to be completed in 2025. Once this phase is completed, we will be able to start to use the building providing a mix of residential space, educational space, a cafe, managed studio and office workspaces and meeting rooms.
Help us deliver our long-term goal
Although our focus is on Phase 1, we want to create a 'destination' of the Chance Glassworks and make it one of the most iconic sites in the Midlands
One of the most exciting aims of the project is to construct a 30m high lighthouse commemorating the site’s heritage !
We are basing the design of our lighthouse on Portland Bill Lighthouse (left), it is still operating today with a Chance lens! We intend to install an original lens. The Scottish Museum of Lighthouses have very kindly offered us a lens on very long term loan from the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse in Scotland similar to the one below. It weighs 41/2 tons and would stand over 5 metres tall once it was installed
Who wouldn't want to visit and climb to a top of a lighthouse in the middle of England? Who knows, we might even make the Guiness Book of Records!
We have an amazing tunnel system too. It was part of a regenerative furnace designed by Seimens in the 1860's. We want the tunnels to feature as part of our visitor offer too
SO - DOES YOUR CONTRIBUTION MATTER ?
Yes - you can help make this vision come true !
Every share invested in counts! Every Shareholder becomes a member of the Trust. Every member is has a voice and a vote. No matter how small your contribution, your support now can make a big difference in helping to move this project forward
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE DON’T MAKE OUR TARGET BY THE DEADLINE?
If we do not manage to hit our minimum target of £110,000, we will not accept any applications for community shares and all of the money will be returned to applicants.
Money pledged via the Crowdfunder platform will not be paid to Chance Heritage Trust or if you have a paper application your cheque will not be cashed until we know we have achieved the minimum target and/or the share offer has closed. If the minimum is not reached your money will be returned to you. We will continue to try and fund the development process from other sources.
If we haven’t reached the target amount of £110,000 by 16th April 2020, the Board reserve the right to extend the deadline for a further two months.
MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM INVESTMENT
The minimum amount that can be invested by an individual or organisation in this share offer is £20.
The maximum amount that can be invested by an individual is £25,000, this is 10°/o of the capital we are seeking to raise. Shares are £1 each, the minimum number of shares you can invest in is 20. You can invest any amount between £20 and £25,000.
If you are an individual or organisation seeking to invest larger amounts you should contact Chance Heritage Trust directly to discuss in further detail the options of alternatives such as donations, loans or bonds.
This is your chance to be a Pioneer and invest and take part in this exciting project
You can invest in shares here on-line, or you would prefer to complete and post an application and cheque click here to take to the shares page on or website
Thank you
This project closed unsuccessfully on 14th April 2020