AN ABANDONDED building in Rhyl which was formerly the home of Gala Bingo and later a cannabis farm has continued its rejuvenation as a community hub.

The East Parade building was taken on last year by Rhyl businessmen Stephen Wright (Sovereign Trophies) and Craig Cummings (High Street Print Shop, formerly of Alpha Print).

They oversaw the building’s revamp to create “High Street Hwb”, which launched in late 2021 at 1-4 East Parade.

Now, its growth has continued, with additional space for the Rhyl-based Gaz Gee’s Martial Arts to set up, as well as other parts of the hub now being used by Morris dancers and a personal trainer.

Stephen said: “Gaz Gee’s Martial Arts, who rent some of the space from us, needed some additional space because they were getting more students in.

“Because of the move to High Street, it just made it better for everyone really, and easier to access than where they were on the HTM Business Park (in Rhuddlan).

“A lot of them are based in Rhyl, and can walk here, rather than drive out of town. They’ve taken over an area of the hub that was disused.

“We’ve cleaned it up a bit and painted it, and there’s now full-time matting down there, so it’s fully set out as a martial arts dojo.

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“They do kickboxing, karate, Brazilian jiu jitsu, and a few other bits and pieces from there. That’s now their dedicated space.

“It (the old martial arts space) is being used by Morris dancers, and a new fitness instructor has set up Costello Fitness.”

Costello Fitness is a run by a newly qualified fitness instructor, who provides personal training courses and one-hour high intensity workouts which cost £5.

Stephen hopes the hub enables her business to grow.

He said: “If she has a certain number of people in her class for the night, she doesn’t pay us anything.

“It’s just to help her build up and grow her business, as she’s very good at what she does. That was the point of the hub; that people could take some of their independence back and develop their own businesses.”

After a strong Christmas but an admittedly quieter January, the hub is working with Rhyl BID (Business Improvement District) to come up with new ideas to continue its expansion.

This follows a successful toy giveaway that it organised and hosted in the run-up to Christmas.

Stephen added: “We’re trying to expand it more. We’ve cleared another couple of rooms in the hub, which we’re going to try and occupy as full-time offices on a donation basis.

“It (toy giveaway) went amazingly. About 70 people came down to it, and all of the leftover toys were donated to Rhyl Wings Projects, which helped them out a lot.”

Stephen and Craig have self-funded the renovations at the hub, which also offers free printing for CVs, job applications, and missing pet posters, and no charge for any good causes who need to use the space.

Its tea and coffee machine, which also makes hot chocolate, is operated on an “honesty” basis, whereby people can make a donation, but don’t have to pay for a hot drink if they can’t or don’t want to.