Donate whatever you can and help us breathe new life into the
Observer Building
UPDATE
We made our £10k Crowdfunding target! We're thrilled and very grateful to Richard Upton, the previous owner of the building, for getting us over the line.
But please don't let this stop you, there's so much to do in the building and your donations and comments mean so much.. let's see how much further we can get! A huge thank you from our team to every person who has supported us so far.
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In under 5 years, we have transformed Rock House, a once derelict office block in Hastings Town Centre, into a vibrant place which blends living, working and community space for local people. The space fosters creative enterprise, has generated homes, jobs and self-employment, and is continually contributing to the changing image and reality of Hastings as a great place to visit, live and work.
We are proud to have the opportunity to massively scale up this work with the iconic Observer Building!
This much-loved local building has been empty for far too long and we are working hard to bring it back to life. We want to create a thriving, vibrant place in this special part of Hastings for people to work, learn, live and have fun – with the community at its heart.
It’s a challenging project but we have an experienced team with local professionals on board who are passionate about the building and who are committed to our sustainable, socially responsible way of working.
We know the Observer Building is important to the local people as part of Hastings’ economic and cultural heritage. That’s why donating even £1 and adding your name to our supporter list really matters – it will help us show funders and other influential stakeholders just how much it means.
An early demonstration of strong local support will make all the difference to the project’s success – so please donate a small amount and share the link with your friends, family and colleagues.
Your support will help us fill the building with people once more and see it playing an important role in our community again.
Thank you to all our supporters.
WHAT THIS CROWDFUNDER MONEY IS FOR
We want funders to know how much people care about bringing the Observer Building back to life. With every supporter name and your messages of support, we can make a good case to gain their backing.
That’s why every supporter, and every message, really matters.
- For a minimum of £1 you can add your name to our list of supporters and give yourself a pat on the back!
- For a minimum of £5 donation, you see your name become a permanent part of a piece of wall art inside the Observer Building.
- And, if you can, leave us a message of support – it means a lot to us and we can tell our backers how much you care
Every donation helps us with start-up costs too.
We work in a phased, organic way so the money raised will go towards the essential work to make the building ready for people to use the space - as early as summer 2019!
We are already talking to local businesses, start-up companies, creative enterprises and community-minded organisations about how they might use the space and begin to contribute to the community.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT US
White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures is a community-rooted neighbourhood developer. We successfully developed Rock House from an empty office block into a thriving mixed-use space that is now home to 43 businesses and 88 individual tenants, all paying securely capped rents.
Now we are bringing the Observer Building back to life too.
Developing the OB will spread and add to the social benefits Rock House offers to the town – affordable homes and workspace, local economic growth, opportunities for collaboration, the productive use of otherwise wasted buildings, and improvement to local amenities. We believe the social impact of the OB will provide life-changing opportunities for local people and small businesses.
See more about our plans here: www.theob.org.uk
REWARDS
We have a varied collection of awesome in-kind donations from local partners and supporters offering unique, and some money can’t buy, rewards for your donations. Thank you to all of them for their generosity and support.
NEW REWARDS ADDED!
£1 - Add your name to our list of supporters and give yourself a pat on the back.
£10 - 100 chances to add your likeness to our ‘Sergeant Pepper’ style wall paper decorating the wall in our window display.
£10 - Bookbuster is offering £5 book vouchers, we have 5 available, redeemable against any in-stock items at Bookbuster Queens Road.
£15 - 10 places for artists/creatives on a 4-hour session of ‘creating’ inside the 34 year derelict Observer Building. Work to be selected from this pool for an exhibition in an empty space inside the OB in September 2019.
£20 - 15 places on a one-off history and geography walk with local historian Steve Peak and local entrepreneur and PhD student Jess Steele about the history and changes afoot in White Rock, Hastings.
£20 - Bookbuster is offering £10 book vouchers, we have 2 available, redeemable against any in-stock items at Bookbuster Queens Road.