HAVERFORDWEST LIBRARY COMPLEX COFFEE SHOP EARLY MARKET ENGAGEMENT 1 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 3 BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................................... 4 INFORMATION ........................................................................................................................................ 6 COFFEE SHOP OPERATION ....................................................................................................................... 7 THE CATERING AREA ............................................................................................................................... 8 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION .................................................................................................................. 10 RESPONSE TO DOCUMENT .................................................................................................................... 11 EXPRESSING INTEREST ........................................................................................................................... 12 QUESTIONNAIRE ................................................................................................................................... 13 QUESTIONNAIRE - ADDITIONAL RESPONSE SPACE ................................................................................. 16 APPENDIX A - CAFÉ COUNTER LAYOUT .................................................................................................. 17 APPENDIX B - CAFÉ SEATING LAYOUT .................................................................................................... 18 APPENDIX C – LIBRARY GROUND FLOOR AERIAL VIEW ........................................................................... 19 APPENDIX D – BASEMENT STORE ........................................................................................................... 20 APPENDIX E – EXTERNAL VISUALS .......................................................................................................... 21 2 INTRODUCTION Pembrokeshire County Council is seeking initial operator interest along with views on the proposed coffee shop operation in the new County Library, Tourist Information and National Gallery Complex in the centre of Haverfordwest, and may subsequently invite formal expressions of interest from any organisation interested in operating and developing the catering opportunity presented in this document. We do not wish to be prescriptive, and at this stage we are primarily interested in obtaining your feedback regarding the enclosed opportunity—its designs and operation along with exploring any proposals you may wish to submit that are viable and compatible with the aims and ethos of PCC’s vision for the operation. Organisations may be operators of companies with local, regional or national interests or community organisations. Set out in this document is more information on the complex and its functions. This exercise is an initial soft market testing only and as such there will be no formal evaluation or scoring. 3 BACKGROUND The new facility has been funded by Pembrokeshire County Council with the assistance of a number of external grants alongside its own capital investment. It is probably the largest single project the County has undertaken within the town centre in recent times. The new complex will overlook the Western Cleddau River and utilises the site that the former market and market café previously occupied . The project is due for completion in March/April 2018. This ambitious project includes; • A 21st Century County Library • A new national quality exhibition gallery in partnership with the National Library of Wales (NLW) • A Tourist Information service • New coffee shop. The vision is for the new complex with its broad and high quality offer and services to become a major focal and meeting point for the population of Haverfordwest, tourists and visitors alike. Its central location and setting (overlooking the river) also presents an opportunity for the operator to develop a strong loyal regular repeat customer base. 4 5 INFORMATION Haverfordwest is the County town of Pembrokeshire and the administrative centre of the county. It is situated on the banks of the River Cleddau. Haverfordwest is also a market town with a popular weekly farmers' market. The centre of the town has several shopping streets containing several independent and national chain retail outlets. User Groups & Visitor Numbers It has been estimated that the facility will welcome over 200,000 visits per annum made up from a number of User Groups; • Library Users – a very broad range of people from families with babies and young children through to retired individuals and groups. • Tourists using the Information Centre and accessing the exhibition gallery* • School groups accessing the exhibition gallery • Shoppers and local business staff *Our partnership with the National Library of Wales The facility The County library will take up the highest proportion of floor space in the facility and will take a technologically rich approach to providing high quality access to information. Integrated into the library will be a Tourist Information Centre in partnership with the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority. It will be a key gateway service to Pembrokeshire, located strategically in the heart of the county, providing information to some of the 4 million tourists that visit the county each year. Another notable element of the library element of the scheme is a children’s play and learn space integrated into the children’s library. The exhibition gallery (around 160 m²) is a collaboration between NLW and PCC. The gallery will provide access to high quality, inspiring collections from NLWs nationally and internationally significant Framed Fine Art Collections. This will be interspersed by temporary exhibitions that have been professionally curated to the highest standards and displayed in Aberystwyth at the National Library prior to display in the facility. While the primary focus is the display of visual arts collections, the gallery will be flexible and will include cased displays of other material 6 culture such as rare books and manuscripts when appropriate to the particular exhibition on display. COFFEE SHOP OPERATION As well as providing a refreshment service to the Library and Gallery Visitor and Tourist Information Centre user, the café has the potential of becoming a destination of choice for locals due to its excellent location, build and river views. Opening times As a minimum, the café is expected to mirror the wider facilities opening times which are not yet finalised but the aspiration would be for the facility to be open 6 days a week (Mon to Sat) including at least one week day evening opening as below: • Monday 10:00am - 5:00pm • Tuesday 10:00am - 7:00pm • Wednesday 10:00am - 5:00pm • Thursday 10:00am - 5:00pm • Friday 10:00am - 5:00pm • Saturday 10:00am - 5:00pm Please note; the current library is closed on Thursdays (all day) and Saturday afternoons and it is possible that the new venues opening hours will match the current library opening hours if we are unable to resource the extension in opening times that we would like. The current library opening hours should therefore be taken as the minimum at this stage and are available at the following link: http://www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/content.asp?nav=107,108,1360,1365 However, the Coffee Shop has been designed to enable operation outside of the above minimum opening hours, enabling the operator to develop regular repeat business, e.g. by opening earlier to capture early morning/breakfast trade. During such times, the coffee shop would operate on its own with no access to the wider library and gallery but the design ensures that all necessary facilities e.g. disabled toilet, are still accessible when the rest of the building is closed. 7 Catering Vision Without being overly prescriptive at this stage PCC’s vision for the catering operation is a simple but select coffee shop operation that will complement the activities within the wider complex, services any programmed activities as well as operating as a standalone destination…...put simply; an Artisan style coffee shop operation offering a range of interesting quality beverages, cakes and cold snacks that is ’accessible’ to all. We are currently of the view that hot food should not form part of the offer. This is because we wish to offer users of the coffee shop an opportunity to take their drinks/snacks into the main body of the library building itself and would not wish to see hot food brought in (note: no food or drink will be allowed in the exhibition gallery). There is also the issue of any food smells permeating into the main body of the building given the open plan nature of the design. This would provide a USP (unique selling point) for the coffee shop in that users would be able to take their drinks/snacks into the main body of the library and thus could enjoy a coffee whilst reading a book, checking their emails or watching out for their children in the children’s play and learn library. All that said, we would welcome feedback on this concept as it is not set in stone. THE CATERING AREA Location Modern and contemporary in appearance the coffee shop will be situated at the main entrance of the Library Complex; formed by the glazing in of the