(Image: T&A)
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Search the Public Notice Portal ONE of Bradford’s most prominent empty units will soon become the city’s latest bar.
Unit A in Centenary Square, a former restaurant and café, has been vacant for years, only used occasionally as a pop-up space for events.
Who has taken it on?
But now major national bar chain Loungers UK have applied for a licence to open the unit as an all day bar and café.
Signs attached to the unit, on the doorstep of City Park, say the new venue will be called Panno Lounge.
Serving alcohol for 14 hours a day
If approved, the new bar will be able to serve alcohol between 10am and midnight.
It would also allow the business to serve food until midnight.
Opening hours would be extended until 2am on New Years Eve.
People have until September 17 to comment on the licence application.
The unit in Centenary Square
(Image: T&A)
Who previously used the unit?
The Centenary Square unit had been used as a temporary space for the Bradford 2025 team before they moved into a former restaurant at the other side of the so called “banana building.”
The unit had been marketed by estate agent Sharma Williamson.
The company’s website listing for the unit now says “terms agreed.”
The new bar will be a welcome boost for the area.
Three other units up to let with library on the move
Earlier this year, café Cake ‘Ole moved out of a unit next to City Park after a rental dispute with Bradford Council, which owns that building.
The building is available to let for £30,000 a year.
Starbucks has also recently vacated its City Park unit after opening new branches in Broadway, on Thornton Road and at Forster Square.
The unit is now available to let for £45,000 a year.
The former City of Culture office space was vacated earlier this year after the end of the year long cultural celebration, and is currently available to let for £84,000 a year.
And Bradford Council plans to re-locate City Library from the building to the ground floor of Britannia House in the near future.
Company has branches in Halifax and Leeds
Loungers currently has over 300 bars across the UK, with 277 of these being under the Lounge Café Bar umbrella.
There are branches in Ilkley (Vitello Lounge), Halifax and Leeds.
The company’s website describes it as “a substantial and growing operator in the UK hospitality sector.”
It adds: “Founded in 2002 by three friends who wanted to create a neighbourhood café-bar that they would want to go to, the Group is now the only growing all-day operator of scale in the UK and has consistently outperformed the wider UK hospitality sector over the past three years.”