Wimpy site to be trendy bar

Work on the £1 million development on Bridge Street will begin on Monday, after contracts were signed transferring ownership to Nick Wilks, Tim Malia and Jack Peters of Lounge Leisure Ltd. The former owners were prominent local businessmen Freddie and Tim Sandy.

The new nightspot will be named Casa, Spanish for ''home'' and will keep the Mediterranean theme, with an outside piazza and two roof terraces.

Mr Wilks said: "We want to bring a stylish and contemporary over-21s bar to Stafford. There is a definite lack of places to go for the over-30s in the town and as there are two floors, we are planning to attract an older crowd upstairs with younger people downstairs. There will also be a VIP room.

"The work is set to cost £1 million and Casa will have a capacity of more than 500.

"We aim to open in the late summer or early autumn."

Partner Jack Peters is the former manager of the Zanzibar nightclub in Newport Road, Stafford, although this is the first nightclub the company has opened together.

Mr Peters is currently in hospital after having his appendix removed in an emergency operation late last night. Casa has already been granted a drinks and entertainment licence stretching into the into the early hours and planning permission has already been given to convert and extend the building to three times its current size.

The venue has permission to open from 9am each day until 6am on Bank Holidays, 4am on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2am from Sunday to Thursday.

Plans to transform the Bridge Street landmark have been on the table for over a year and it was originally hoped that the club would open before Christmas 2006.

However, legal wrangles over matters such as obtaining a hot food licence for the former PC Dreams building on Bridge Street – planned to be the new home of the Wimpy bar – meant the process was delayed.

Contracts were signed transferring ownership yesterday.