St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine, February 2019

at church development
PROJECT 450 DEVELOPMENTS
— RHYS WILLIAMS
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
P
ROJECT 450 WILL ENTER A SIGNIFICANT NEW PHASE during the
first half of 2019, with the production of a Project 450 masterplan
that will provide the congregation, the community, visitors to St Mary
Redcliffe and statutory stakeholders with a clearer picture of what the
church’s new facilities will look like and do.
The masterplan will be built on the wealth of information that we have
accumulated during the last few years. As previously reported, during
his time the church has commissioned a series of studies and reports
that have:
• catalogued and assigned significance to St Mary Redcliffe’s heritage
assets, allowing the church to build a clearer picture of how it might
display treasures that either are not currently on display or might be
displayed more effectively;
• collected its stories, related these to broad themes, and looked at
how the story of the church might be better presented to church
users;
• analysed the church’s role in the community and looked at how Project
450 can help the organisation better respond to local deprivation
and need;
• evaluated the church’s potential for attracting finance from third
party funding organisations and private individuals;
• looked at the potential form of the church’s new buildings and how
they can respond to organisational needs.
The last of the preparatory studies — the Project 450 business plan — will
look at financial feasibility, organisational capacity and long-term sustainability.
The church has appointed Glevum Consulting, an experienced
heritage business consultancy, to produce the business plan. Since
2002, Glevum has helped secure £70 million of HLF and private donor
funding, and directly helped deliver £40 million of capital projects and
activity plans. Recently the organisation has provided funding and project
management services to Bristol Old Vic to support its successful development
project.The business plan will include the following elements:
• an analysis of the structure and operational characteristics of the
church, including its purpose and aims, its legal status, its membership,
its organisational structure, and the roles of its staff and volunteers;
• an analysis and evaluation of the church’s experience: its achievements
and ability to deliver Project 450. This will also look at the church’s partnership
work with both private and public organisations;
• an overview of the development of Project 450, including commissioned
studies and research, consultation and the budget to date;
• an analysis of Project 450 strategy and aims, outcomes and lifespan,
including how the project relates to the church’s organisational aims
and local, regional and national strategies for regeneration and heritage;
• detailed information on the capital project, the development programme
and critical path, highlighting the church’s heritage USPs (unique selling
points) and the main commercial and community drivers;
• a market appraisal, looking at the current heritage market, the target
market, competition, and a competitive strategy;
• financial modelling, looking at commercial income and expenditure,
including income forecasts and return on investments for all areas of
the business model, integrating the new capital elements of the scheme;
• a review of governance, management, staff and volunteers;
• a detailed risk analysis;
• a monitoring and evaluation strategy;
• an organisational impact and transition analysis.
This work will help to define the scope and scale of parts of the development
that are linked with income-generating activities: for example, the
shop and café. It will also help us to answer the question of whether it
is feasible to rehouse William Hogarth’s altarpiece as part of the project,
by looking at issues such as organisational impact and sustainability.
It is estimated that the business plan will be finalised in around six to
eight weeks, at which point project 450 architects Purcell will use the
information it contains to refine the design and produce the masterplan.