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Proposal for taking lease on Fountain Court.
Part 1: Overview and Benefits
We are currently restricted in terms of available duplicate sessions and number of tables. We are also operating in multiple venues. In the past year we have been using (not including the bowls club and the conservative club), The New Horizons hall for Monday and Thursday; two rooms at the Methodist church, one for teaching the other for improvers; Lubbenham village hall for Trustee meetings; the landing on the Baptist church for dealing and a separate venue for a charity event.
Unlike many bridge clubs we do not hold any playing sessions or teaching during the day.
The Trustees are currently considering an option to lease the ground floor of the premises at Fountain Court for 5 or 7 years initially, for the following reasons:
- It is in line with charity's objectives, namely: ‘The provision of facilities for the learning, teaching and playing of bridge for the benefit of the residents of Market Harborough and the surrounding area with the object of improving conditions of life’.
- It enables expansion to add in daytime sessions
- By bringing all activities into one location it simplifies operations and management
- It removes the issues around losing sessions to external events, which has happened on several occasional at New Horizons; and lessens the risks of "old building syndrome" such as we had recently with the wiring problems
- It offers a ground floor no-steps access/egress.
In pursuing this objective, we are greatly encouraged by the experience of the Rutland and Oakham club who, after leasing dedicated premises saw their membership and number of tables each week double. That is not to say we will achieve the same increase, but there is significant likelihood of growth.
In addition, most Bridge Clubs most popular sessions are those run during the day.
Our plan involves bringing all current activities into the one location (we will need to move the supervised play to a different evening to accommodate this), and to add a Friday afternoon duplicate session, along with marketing activities to attract new players who we may not reach today if they are not prepared to venture out in an evening.
Currently, the Trustees are involved in negotiations to ensure they have all the necessary information in place and confirmed. Once we have that, if Trustees decide the opportunity should be pursued, we will hold and EGM for members to have their say. We consider it very important that the members are in favour.
Part 2. Fountain Court - The premises
We have identified a premises in Fountain Court which is in a courtyard on the High Street opposite where The Angel pub (a previous home of MHBC) was. The facility has several positive aspects that are extremely unlikely to be found in other premises, namely:
- Ground floor with no stairs or steps
- Adjacent public parking
- Newly built (no ‘old building’ issues)
- Of good size (12 tables, possibly more if we move to standard sized bridge tables)
- Location, in the centre of town, with the ability to create a good club atmosphere
It requires some work to adapt the internal layout to suit our needs but is otherwise an ideal opportunity.
There are costs involved, of course, but we believe these are achievable and sustainable. We may need to raise funds for the initial costs.
Building Work
There is initial building work to be done. The owner has approved this in principle. Owner has also agreed for up to 3-months rent free to undertake the building work.
- Remove internal walls to create an open area approximately 15% larger than New Horizons and with less doorways making the space more useable. Owner has confirmed that once they approve our building plans and undertake the work, there will be no requirement to return the building to its previous state. We will ensure this is legally written into our agreement.
- Add a “coffee station” with storage underneath at the West end of the main room with a hot water unit (like that in NHH). We believe the kitchen access is too small for that purpose.
- Add a desk area also at the Western end for scoring/dealing equipment.
- Confirm if the current external lighting is adequate for the area leading to the public car park. If not install an additional light to ensure the route to the public car park is well lit.
- Sign up with local provider for broadband and wi-fi.
- Ideally, we would like to include a large screen TV and AV equipment to support (and grow) the supervised play session
Part 3. Operational Considerations
Bridge Sessions
We would continue to run all our existing activities in that location. The only change required would be to move the supervised play to a different evening (Tuesday perhaps) to ensure only one activity at a time
In addition, we would start up a Friday afternoon duplicate session which Philip has agreed to manage. Other activities may be added subject to operational support from our members, we would welcome any member who is prepared to help with other additional sessions, please let the Trustees know. These do not have to be duplicate - they could be social, rubber, Chicago, or practice sessions; weekday or weekends
Management Requirements
Will need a resident (two ideally) within, say, 10 minutes of the premises familiar with alarm/heating etc.
Keyholder (open and lock up); directing, scoring, making coffee, laying out and pack up refreshment, washing cups after use, training, supervised play – these are largely unchanged
Some activities will become easier: Tables/chairs set-up, scoring set-up (should be in place all the time). Boards for training (will be onsite). Dealing (wider scope of time). Putting chairs/tables away. Scorer training (as we now have a venue to undertake this)
Option: Simplify the technology by using a fixed desktop computer for all dealing and scoring (keep existing laptop(s) as backup and to support scorer training.
Administration
Our accounting will be more involved, with more assets, potentially income from different sources, and expenses such as cleaning, services and utility bills.
Secretarial duties may increase slightly, with managing documents/procedures such as lease contracts (hopefully this is a one-off), health and safety.
Trustees will be expected to ease the duties of the treasurer and secretary where possible.
Part 4: Finance
This is probably the most critical element of the project. Can we afford it?
By way of background, and based on 2025 figures we had: income £22k, rent £9k, other costs £5k, and a surplus of £8k leaving a bank balance of £18k
The "run rate" for the first quarter of 2026 is slightly ahead of this this and the current funds balance is £24k (end of April 2026):
Operating Costs
In Fountain court, we expect our costs (lease and other costs combined ) to rise from the current £14k to around £24k in year 1, rising to £26k in year 5. A more detailed breakdown of this can be found elsewhere (TO ADD)
To make the proposal viable we need to increase our income by at least £3k in year 1 and up to £5k in year 5. This equates to one extra session of 4 tables in year 1 (Of the £5 per player we lose around £1 to EBU fees, refreshments, heating etc) and we have already planned to set up a Friday afternoon session to attract new players.
In our financial analysis we have not included any additional income from sub-letting the space to other clubs/societies. We believe there will be scope to do this to supplement our revenue.
See the pages “Cash and Capital” and Cash Flow” for additional details on the financials. (TO ADD)
The financials do not show a figure for rates. Rates are not payable on small businesses where the rateable value is below £12,000 (which would include Fountain Court ground floor); and if the rateable value were to increase there is both a tapered relief and a charity relief (typically 80%), thus rates are not considered to be a costing issue. Freeholder has stated that service charge/management fees would be "minimal" and cover water, outside cleaning, fire alarm testing, and boiler maintenance, and common area cleaning. We have estimated these for now but will get more detail and written confirmation.
The owner is requesting a 5-year initial lease. We will try to extend this to 7 years and negotiate a 3-year break clause to provide a financial safety-net in a worst-case scenario.
Start-up Costs
Our members must be thanked as we have already raised a significant cash balance through current sessions, this should reach over £25k by the end of June. We plan to run a fundraising campaign to bolster this.
Initial costs, including 3-month advance rent and a 3-month deposit are expected to be between £24k and £40k (the higher figure includes significant optional items such as AV equipment, tables, lighting upgrades). Several items on this list are still being scrutinised by the Trustees to ensure they are accurate; this may be an over-estimate.
We plan to hold a cash balance of a minimum of 6-months forward expenses, which would be £12k.
Using the low estimate, our £25k cash less start-up cost requires fundraising of £13k to hit target, with the highest estimate that rises to £27k. Can we achieve this?
Risks
This is a significant undertaking. We must recognise there are risks and seek to mitigate them.
- Anything to cause a sudden drop in revenue (e.g. Covid equivalent) when we are committed to a significant on-going cost. This is the reason for holding 6 months forward expenses, as suggested by Charity Commission guidelines. We hope to increase this due to income exceeding expenditure, so whilst there is risk here, we believe it is minimal and over time will dissipate. In addition, a lockdown situation would reduce many of our costs and we would seek to negotiate fixed costs such as leasehold fees. Hopefully, our fundraising will give us a larger initial buffer.
- Under the terms of the lease, we would be liable for 15% of the costs of courtyard maintenance. It is currently in good condition, so this risk is extremely small in the short to medium term. Our estimate is that such an exercise would be in the region of £10000; of which 15% is £1,500.
Disadvantages
Our costs are variable today, giving us good control over them. If we take on the lease we move to a large fixed cost and have an increased risk of additional costs due to (e.g.) unexpected service charges for repairs, natural events like Covid, rises in heating costs, vandalism. We can mitigate this risk by holding a strong forward cash balance, but we cannot ignore it completely.
We will need to change the day for either the lessons or (more likely) the supervised play/improvers. We will also need to acquire, fit and maintain AV equipment.
Alternatives
We have considered various alternatives; each has advantages and disadvantages. They include:
An "out-of-town" commercial property. This would be a lower annual cost but in our limited experience are generally either too small (business offices) or too large (warehouse type), often not ground floor, and with very limited parking.
The bigger hall at the Baptist church. Our recent experiences with them suggest this - if it does ever become a possibility - is fraught with problems. The electrical problems identified in the building are in that area and nothing is planned even now. And if they do upgrade it then we are once again competing for space which may or may not be available.
Bowden Trust. We are aware they are due to start developing something in the town centre area, but as yet there are no details and no indication when work may start. Even then, it may or may not be suitable and available to us in the way we would like.
Do nothing. Stay as we are. This is an option but gives us no scope for expansion and growth.
Marketing for Expansion
Background
however the additional costs does allow us a great deal of scope for expansion which we do not have today. It also significantly reduces the operational complexities we have today using multiple sites.
Today's situation
The New Horizons hall for Monday and Thursday; two rooms at the Methodist church, one for teaching the other for improvers; Lubbenham village hall for Trustee meetings; the landing on the Baptist church for dealing and a separate venue for a charity event
Benefits
-
ackground:
- It is a two storey building. We would be leasing the ground floor only. Freeholder has approved this. We would also have dedicated use of the storage downstairs.
- The floor is currently partitioned. We would need to reconfigure the space to make it open-plan, and not be bound to replace. Landlord approved subject to seeing the plans.
- Landlord has also agree a rent free period up to 3 months agreed to allow us to complete the refit.
- Landlord prefers a 5-year lease period. We may wish to negotiate that for a longer lease.
Positive aspects:
Size: 12 table will fit comfortably (plenty of room and not a squeeze fit), even with an office-desk style scoring area either at the kitchen end or even in an area close the kitchen. I believe that gives the club a good future with space to accomodate new players.
Growth: It gives us a excellent growth potential including the option for afternoon/weekend sessions as we grow. This fits with our long term goals.
Location: Ideal town centre location with adjacent parking
Negative aspects:
Parking: Daytime parking is chargeable (£2.50 for 4 hours). We could possibly offest that by charging a lower rate for daytime session(s).
Additional workload: We will need volunteers to get involved. Let's cross this bridge when we get closer to a decision. I believe we will be able to gain traction from members if it is our own building.
Unknown aspects:
Cost and timescale of restructuring.
Our exprience and what exactly we need to (a) get it working and (b) manage it once up and running.
Really detailed costings. Philip has done a lot of work on the costings already. Based on his numbers I am satisfied that we are in a position to afford the running costs. We will need to fine tune this get more detail to be 100% sure of the figures before any final commitment is made.
Next steps.
We agreed a subcommittee to progress this. Their remit should now be to:
- Take a set of tables/chairs over to see them actually laid out to confirm measurements.
- Get ball-park figures on what it will cost to create plans for alterations, identify who might draw up those plans and how long that would take.
- Get some outline plans drawn up and the get building quotes based on them.
And as trustees we need to inform members what we are doing to start building trust and confidence
There is always a fear factor. We have not done this before, so it sounds/feels scary. It is a big commitment, we need to be sure..... but we will only ever be sure if we keep working on this until we iron out the unknowns.
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