BUSINESSES will all reap the fruits of the Piece Hall revamp bid if it is approved.
Sally Martin, director of the Square Chapel Trust, explained the £16 million vision for the iconic historic building to members of the Business for Calderdale networking group.
Steve Duncan, the chief executive of the Community Foundation for Cald
erdale, said she gave an "inspiring" presentation.
She explained the project would place the Grade I listed building at the centre of Halifax daily life and transform it into a major regional and national visitor attraction.
By early summer 2014, they intend to have transformed the Piece Hall, creating a new "town square" for Halifax, attracting retail and leisure businesses and providing a "food quarter" offering local and regionally sourced produce.
The project would see the introduction of a night-time economy, featuring high quality evening entertainment and varied restaurants and bars. And start-up businesses in the creative and digital technology sectors could be established there.
The project would create a new Interpretation Centre, offering Wifi connectivity, cutting edge digital audio-visual media and hand-held audio guides, and a new learning centre would also be created.
Artefacts on display would include the Calderdale Museums Service's collections, including a working handloom and spinning wheel.
Mrs Martin said: "There will be a great variety of businesses affected.
"It's going to increase visitor numbers and put Halifax more on a national map.
"There was a lot of interest at the meeting.
"A lot of people talked afterwards – one comment was that it is interesting the Piece Hall was built with subscriptions from businesses.
"Businesses today want to get behind the bid."
