Nightmare on Castle Street

Oct 16 2008 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

A HAMILTON firm’s bid to open a £½m fancy dress store - in the run-up to Hallowe’en - has turned into a nightmare.

Inkspot say ‘red tape’ has temporarily stymied the new development, in units five and six of the showpiece Hamilton Towers building on the corner of Castle Street and the Town Square.

The £20m Towers complex was to be completed in mid-summer, but South Lanarkshire Council and developers Lynnham say the complex’s gas and water supply has still to be properly connected.

Inkspot managing director Martin Super has estimated that the failure to open the new shop, known as Dazzle, before October 31 could cost them up to £200,000.

He remains committed to Hamilton but told the Advertiser he now wishes he had chosen Glasgow as the location for this latest venture.

The new 3000 sq ft store is opposite Inkspot’s long-established shop, in Castle Street.

The company are best known as printers and stationery suppliers, but sales of fancy dress costume now amount to 70 per cent of their retail turnover.

To build on their success and further tap into the fancy dress market, the company agreed the £50,000-a-year rent of the two Hamilton Towers units.

The terms of the deal were negotiated with South Lanarkshire Council who are set to take on the ‘head lease’ of the retail part of Hamilton Towers from the complex’s developers Lynnham Properties, part of the company that own Hamilton Palace nightclub.

Mr Super said he made it clear to the council that he would only proceed with the let if the units were ready to trade by the end of September.

He believed the deadline for entry would be met as the building was due for completion in June.

By July, however, the terms of the lease had still not been concluded.

Despite that, Inkspot were allowed access to the development to carry out a £175,000 re-fit of the units.

To cope with the expected Hallowe’en rush, the company ordered £400,000 worth of stock, and four extra full-time members of staff joined Inkspot’s 36-strong workforce.

However, just two days before the shop was due to welcome its first customers, at the September weekend, Mr Super learned that the opening could not go ahead.

Lynnham and the council had failed to finalise the head lease for the complex because of problems with its gas and water supply connection.

With the building, therefore, not completed, the council and Inkspot were unable to commence their leasing arrangement.

Mr Super said: “We then entered into talks with all parties to find a solution to us being able to trade.

“We received our building warrant, completion certificate and a temporary occupation certificate, but agreement between the developers, contractors and SLC could not be reached in time.”

Mr Super said they got round the water supply issue by planning to allow staff to use toilet facilities in the existing store.

Last week, however, negotiations ended with no resolution in sight.

Inkspot accepted the chances of their being able to trade in the new complex before Hallowe’en were remote.

Staff worked until 3am on Friday morning to transfer fancy dress garb across the street to their old store.

Mr Super added: “Everytime we came up with a solution the goalposts were moved and we were facing a new set of problems that we had to try and resolve.

“It is most frustrating to have encountered such red tape while trying to expand at a time when few firms are able to.

A council spokesman said: “Over recent weeks both the council and Lynnham have explored potential solutions that would allow them to trade from the retail unit.

“Last week, a mechanism was proposed by Lynnham which could have allowed Inkspot to open for trade on Monday of this week.

“However, we were then told by Inkspot that if all necessary legal agreements were not in place by close of business on Friday (October 10), the retail unit was of no use to them in the trading period leading up to Hallowe’en.

“The council advised the firm that we could not provide a guarantee that this timescale could be met.”

Mr Super retorted: “The council wanted us to meet the legal costs, amounting to several thousands of pounds, that they had incurred in failing to find previous solutions as a result of the development running behind schedule.”

“They also wanted us to accept further legal costs in finding a solution without any timescale being worked to or guarantees of success.”

Stephen Marsh, director of finance for Lynnham, added: “We have done everything we can to find a solution but unfortunately, due to a utility problem, the building’s gas and water connections have not been made and, for that reason, the building is not finished.”

A Scottish Water spokesman said: “We are working with the customer on completing the necessary paper work and are hopeful this will allow us to complete the water connection this week.”