Senior's Utopian takes on Ultimate challenge
Utopian Leisure boss Bob Senior is to go head-to-head with his former company, Ultimate Leisure, in Belfast, the Morning Advertiser has learnt.
Senior, Ultimate chief executive until he was ousted by shareholders last August, will take the lease on a 22,000sq ft venue, previously run without much success as the Precious and Refinery nightclub, in Belfast's Odyssey complex.
Odyssey is already home to a successful Ultimate site, the 13,500sq ft Bambu Beach nightclub which opened just over three years ago. Bambu Beach earned back its £1.7m fit-out cost in its first year of trading.
Senior plans to spend around £1.4m on a re-fit of the site prior to its relaunch towards the end of the year.
The club is Utopian¹s fourth venue it took the lease on a 7,500sq ft site at the Walkergate development in Durham and has two sites in Newcastle.
Utopian also plans to refurbish its 850-capacity Bar 55 site in Newcastle and relaunch it as Studio 55 at the end of this month.
Senior set up Utopian last September with former Ultimate developmentdirector Tim Wynn. The company has a £50m debt facility with the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest.
