11 Jul 2024
An independent café is to open its doors before the end of the year at the Old Post Office in Bury St Edmunds after agreeing terms with West Suffolk Council.
Amici represents a new venture for Ross Walker Managing Director of the CASA Group.
They will be fitting out and opening in the St Andrews Street South unit of the development built by West Suffolk Council.
“Bury St Edmunds is such a great town for a whole variety of reasons including its history, heritage, leisure and culture as well as its shops, cafés and restaurants. It’s such as great development and a prime spot between the arc and the historic town centre. We can’t wait to open,” Ross said.
The new café will specialise in selling locally sourced foods with the majority East Anglian sourced.
“It’s about ensuring good quality locally sourced seasonal ingredients and foods – Suffolk and East Anglia has so much of that to offer and the less it has travelled, the better both for the taste and for the environment as well,” said Ross.
Cllr Diane Hind, Cabinet Member for Resources at West Suffolk Council said: “We can now confirm the first of our new tenants for our commercial units at The Old Post Office Bury St Edmunds.”
“We are delighted that a new independent business has chosen to set up in Bury St Edmunds at this prime town centre site. You only have to look through a coffee shop window to see that there continues to be strong demand for cafes and restaurants in the Bury St Edmunds and that helps support the town’s retail.”
The council is continuing to speak to possible suitable occupiers for the ground floor Cornhill-facing commercial unit.
The council’s redevelopment of the former Post Office building also delivered 12 apartments. The council has just exchanged on the last flat in the scheme, with all the others sold. The sales of the 12 apartments will generate close to £4m, higher than forecast in the council’s business plan.
With the income from the apartments and the projected income from the commercial units, the project, which received cross-party political support, is still expected to pay for itself over its lifetime while also making significant improvements to the town centre including:
• Protecting the unlisted Victorian Cornhill front so that it can be brought back into economic use while improving access and replacing windows to improve energy efficiency.
• Turning an unattractive yard area at the rear of the old Post Office into a new commercial unit.
• Widening Market Thoroughfare by more than 50 per cent at ground floor level from 2.4m to 3.8m to better encourage footfall between the arc and the historic town centre.
Cllr Indy Wijenayaka, Cabinet Member for Growth at West Suffolk, said: “These improvements are in direct response to many of the 8000 public comments that shaped the town centre masterplan in 2017 and are things that would not have been achieved had we left the building to the open market.”
“All of this will only be further enhanced by the arrival of Amici later this year and we look forward to celebrating its opening.”
It is also understood that Amici will be seeking a pavement licence for outside table and chairs in St Andrews Street, fitting in with the Bury St Edmunds Town Centre Masterplan vision for the transformation of St Andrews St South.
In time, it is also hoped that the redevelopment will also encourage other landowners and developers to improve the street scene, better connecting the arc with the historic town centre and helping support the ambitions of the town centre masterplan.
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