An 11th hour appeal has been made to save Sugar Rush and Stage Door Arts Academy from losing their new home in Ramsgate High Street.
The former WHSmith premises was taken over by Sugar Rush and SDA on February 15 this year with plans to convert the building into a community theatre, café, performance space, speakeasy style bar, studios, offices and more.
The 5,095 Sq. Ft unit was taken on by the performing arts school and community café after the need to move from 66 High Street due to that site being earmarked for demolition and redevelopment.
Mum-of-two Heidi Moran founded SDA in 2007 and converted it to CIC status last year. She has also run businesses ranging from tepee hire to princess parties and the café which started life in Margate Old Town in 2017 before the move to Ramsgate in 2020.
This year an army of volunteers have transformed much of the building. This has included creating Salon Du Miel cabaret bar upstairs, co-working spaces, redecoration, new flooring, toilets, storage and a new café area.
But Heidi says the building was in a very poor state and this delayed some of the works, initially holding up plans for events to help raise money for costs and rent.
And now Sugar Rush is faced with having to pay £10.5k to the landlord by Friday, with £9.5k of that still to raise, or be kicked out.
Heidi said: “The building was left in a much worse condition than anticipated after the contractors ripped out what was left of WHSmith and that created a few delays, but we are now on track and have made so much progress.
“We have started hosting great events, we rehoused the Ramsgate Festival of Sound at the very last minute due to the weather, the coffee shop is about open, we have had an exhibition (by photographer Mike Goldwater), are ready to start the performing arts school and have community groups booked up.
“The deadline for us to have all of the money to the landlord for insurances, rent etc is on Friday. “We were hoping that this would all be achieved by hosting events that would cover these costs, but the delays meant we haven’t quite hit that target and the landlord wants us out on Friday if we don’t hit that.
“The whole project has been about community. It is a CIC, not for profit, so the events that happen there will pay the costs of the venue, rents/rates/utilities, and then if any extra it will go towards funding community projects in the space. Everything done on the building so far has been via grassroots fundraising and donations at a community level, holding events, fundraisers, a jus giving page and the support from locals has been astounding.
“We have been blown away by the kindness of people wanting to volunteer and get behind the project. We just need help on this final push.
“We have applied for funding for various future projects, but these all take time and fund the specific project rather than the costs of the building itself.
“It is such a unique project, nothing currently exists like it around here, and in such a central location. This is to house an affordable theatre space, both for hirers and audience, multiple studio spaces, a cabaret venue for upcoming artists, rehearsal rooms, coffee shop, co-working spaces, gallery space and community groups (baby and toddler, LGBTIQQ+, neuro diverse, sober socials) bringing a whole range of society together for events. We are right at the last hurdle and it would be such a shame to lose it after six months hard work.
“We are looking for any help at all, sponsorship, donations, fundraisers, angels.”
It is hoped the project can be saved so phase 3 of the build, for the theatre, dressing rooms, signs and tech spaces, can be completed.
The aim is to create at least a dozen jobs and continued volunteer roles. Funds already raised of circa £14.5k have gone on mainly rent and fees to the landlord, trade materials, stock for the café and utilities.
Massive building without any proper sort of business plan ?
It’s a bit stupid of them to try and get a project off the ground without the funds to pay the rent, and now they want locals to pay it for them??
Maybe my local The Artillery Arms would be a better place for that sort of entertainment.
Come on Andrew, Phyllis, Rees, et al – put your hands in your pockets and help make Ramsgate even greater!
The landlord will be delighted with the transformation of their space – who is the landlord?
Why wait to the eleventh hour to call for support?
Perhaps Labour MP Polly Billington could take on the space as her Labour HQ, Community Space, heating hub for local families and pensioners and anything else that would effectively benefit the people who live here.
Others have opined that it would make a fabulous gallery.
I’m sure all ideas are to be welcomed including fund-raising.
– stage door arts cic has been registered as dormant since 2016
– those who run it, proud to have not “put their own hands in their own pockets”, but demand everything from the community
– how are they going to pay for the huge heating bills in winter?
– no business plan in place – you cannot expect the “community” to pay for everything
– hosting events without premise license, personal/alcohol license etc.
– constant changing amounts in the crowd fund, without clear communication
It would have been nice, but without a business plan in place and a far too big building, I don’t see it happening, unfortunately.
I wish them well but the level of naivety of many who run, fund and/or assist both profit and not-for-profit ventures in Ramsgate town centre defies belief.
How many times, stop asking the public to pay the running costs of your business and then charge them again if they want to use the facilities or services you offer. If it is such a great business use your own money or borrow against your houses (yes Heidi, you know the one that was up for sale the other year for over £500,000)
If you want to run a business, you need to financially support it yourself when it is needed. Or are you offering all these people that have given up there time to improve the space for free and given youmoney equity in the business?
Totally sick of people who have money to support there own busniess asking others to put there hands in there pockets, its disgusting.
So,another “Go Fund Me” business model.They will,forever,be asking for more handouts,until they, inevitably , fold.
This is a business,run by people with no business acumen.
Noble it may be, naive it definitely is.
These businesses have not right to expect others to finance it
Just let it close…
It never fully opened.
““It is such a unique project, nothing currently exists like it around here, and in such a central location. “”
Perhaps there’s a reason for the above statement, there isnt the demand or finances for a unique project. Yet another arty type project that if it doesn’t get a grant it starts a go fund me page.
At the end of the day you are a business, no different to hundreds of other businesses.
Is this 11k a monthly rent or quarterly ?
Your question regarding the frequency of the 11k rent is a good one. It effectively asks how soon will the local community likely be tapped up for another approx 11k to keep Heidi Moran’s (and according to Companies House also Tracy Golesworthy’s) business going. Unless of course they have a realistic plan to generate significant income in the very immediate short term once the initial 11k has been given to them. However, nothing I have read in this article gives me confidence that that is the case.
Ramsgate had a small bookshop that used ‘gofundme’ that’s has now closed.
SugarRush seems to be using the same business mode ie gofundme with the same result ?
Ramsgate had a posh bakers in Harbour Street loafs at 4 quid a pop. It’s now gone.
Do these business people do research into the area ?
Places like Poundland seem to be doing fine. They prices are what the area can afford.
What did business do before gofundme ? Go to the bank for a load ?
For all its “Art regeneration”, by far the busiest shop in Margate High Street is Poundland, with The Works and Peacocks probably 2nd and 3rd. But try telling the Art Grant/GoFundMe crowd that we need big chains to attract punters.
Love those shops peter,whats wrong with them
WELL THAT DID NOT LAST LONG -LIKE THE SHOP WHAT WAS ONCE ROOKS-THAT GOT TAKEN OVER-THANK U THANET COUNCIL FOR DRIVING OUT THE TRADE FROM THE TOWN. BETTER STILL GET RID OFF WESTWOOD CROSS AND BRING BACK THE TRADE TO THE TOWNS.
Did you ever go in any of these businesses? I didn’t (though I might’ve if I lived in Ramsgate).
Daydreamer. Get rid of WWX and the stores there will be gone from Thanet for good. They wanted WWX in the first place because they wanted to close the smaller stores. Even Debenhams couldn’t survive in WWX, let alone in a local High Street. The days of Lewis & Hyland, Bourne’s, Whites, Chelsea Girl, eight shoe shops, knitting wool shops, two record shops, fishmongers, Fine Fare, and all the rest, were gone long before WWX was built, let alone before the rise of internet shopping. Let’s face it, the face of the High Street has change and will change more. The future of the modern High Street is now a community space. But Thanet hasn’t caught up with that idea yet.
I agree, although the use of the term ‘community space’ needs some clarification. The high street of old was a community space. Families would go out shopping, friends of all ages would meet up, kids would hang out, go see a film together, and so on and so forth. The ‘public square’ was exactly that: the public’s. This is also true for malls (despite the privatisation of that public space). And so I feel the High Street change you refer to isn’t so much about ‘non-community space’ to ‘community space’. And I feel the difficulties of the transition is more about the business heads of commercial enterprise understanding the High Street is no longer a viable option, but non-business heads (like Sugar Rush) thinking it is a viable option despite none of the operating conditions being any different from before (apart from ‘GoFundMe’ as an alternative to a bank or your own pocket).
I also feel that ‘community space’ is very often just a positioning term used by business enterprises (of which Sugar Rush is one) to suggest theirs is an altruistic venture and to encourage the receipt of the free goodwill of others. I believe the reality is that if there was not a potential salary for the directors somewhere along the line, they would probably not have started it up in the first place, meaning that it is very much driven by their own personal interest. I don’t have an issue with personal interest of course, but I do have an issue with a pretence that that is not a crucial driver.
‘Community’ is also used as an all embracing term which many use in the belief it cannot be challenged as anything other than positive. However, the reality of what many refer to as the ‘community’ is actually a very small percentage of the entire community; it is simply a sub-grouping of people who happen to share the same values.
I am interested to see what the future of the High Street is, but I feel we are a long way away from it in our current thinking.
How about getting funding first before you sign leases etc,now that’s good business ethics
Of course another solution to aid our failing High Streets is for the Government to put a cap on commercial rents in core locations or the local authority compulsorily purchase these spaces.
If this building closes you can bet it stays empty for ages.
Why do so many people have such a downer on anyone trying to do anything in Ramsgate? Reading Isle of Thanet News comments sections anyone with any sense will go anywhere but Thanet.
I have nothing against people trying to do something.
I am against business people not running their business correctly and wanting the general people to bail them out.
Nearly all of the arty ventures seem to rely on handouts or grants. They don’t seem to be run as a business.
This site the old WHS is a huge site and will of course have huge overheads , which should have been factored in by sugar rush. 11k a month is a huge rent to pay
I don’t agree that anyone with a good and viable idea (ie someone you refer to as having sense) for the use of property in Ramsgate’s high street will be put off from doing so because of a few comments (a tiny number in terms of entire population) on a local newspaper’s website. If they are, then they are clearly someone who never had the resilience to face all the inevitable and even bigger challenges they would have gone on to face.
…anyone with a good and viable idea would be able to get it off the ground and make a success out of it without the constant tapping up the public for donations. The fact that it requires public funding (charity) tells me it isn’t a good idea and is therefore not viable.
“…someone you refer to as having sense” obviously has zero sense other than a considered entitlement to sponging off other people.
“…She has also run businesses ranging from tepee hire (really!) to princess parties (and again – REALLY!) and the café in Margate” which all sounds very new age and, frankly, worthless. It is the profits from her other business ventures that should be funding her new venture.
I like to think I have some experience having started my business, over 40 years ago with my own money and a small bank loan which I had to guarantee.
It’s easy to set up a business on other people’s money.
My suggestion is to forget all this CIC stuff and stop trying to run a business off charitable funding.
I’d be very interested to see the balance sheet snd, more importantly, exactly who is drawing how much in salaries.
I tried to hire this for events and was told it was fully booked. Sounds like they could have used the money.
Surely when asking for figures of such astronomical value the doners should be given access to the balance sheets and accounts.
While many small business owners are struggling to feed their families, pay for utilities and have a quality of life, the huge asks of this “community project” seem as ridiculous as Rishi in a helicopter during a cost of living crisis. Does anyone else demand to see these accounts and the people paid back.
The place looks like an eyesore. I still don’t one understand the point of it. The Granville’s just up the road. Leave the space for a viable business.
As others have said, why not use some of the vast sum she got for selling her house? I’ve met the woman a few times through friends of friends at local events, and she was very, very self publicising, letting everyone who’d listen know how everything she did was the greatest and better than other event promoters in the local area. She also seems to be of the ilk that expects the moon on a stick with no payback/recompense to those who have supported her. You could be forgiven by thinking this sort of behaviour is allegedly exploitative of peoples good intentions.
To all the donors; fools and their money are soon parted.
If it isn’t saved do the gofundme people get their money back ?
Not if its already been spent, no. I’d absolutely love to see a forensic accountant go through their books though.
All companies in her name are all dormant. Where has all the money gone from her businesses?
All very dubious, if you ask me.
Perhaps the landlord has become aware of all this, hence the action now?
It states in the article that payment had to be paid by yesterday (Friday). Yet the gofundme pages is still open and someone has donated 50quid today ! Isn’t it to late ?
On their page it’s says the percentages of how they plan to bring in the rest of the revenue. Absolute pie in the sky.
30% of the 11000 is 3300
They think they are gonna bring that in from salon de mile which is capacity 60
You’d have to sell it out twice a week every month which isn’t going to happen
They aren’t even paying the artists ! How is that community.
This hasn’t been though through and it’s absolutely infuriating.
Ah the great and good of these cesspit that is these comments. Same sad old bores that seemingly just prefer everything to be closed rather than anyone try or do anything.
Presumably as doing nothing is so reflective of their lives (pervy photo books notwithstanding.
Shame this looks like it won’t get off the ground properly.