GA Solicitors Advises Café with a Twist
A new and innovative café is set to open in Plymouth’s city centre after commercial advice was provided by established Plymouth law firm, GA Solicitors.
Almost £40,000 will be invested into the space, converting a 2,400 sq ft retail outlet into an innovative and unique board game café. Named Twist, the café will be located on Mayflower Street and will include more than 80 covers across its two floors. It will provide the city with a brand new leisure experience – for £5 you can access their library of over 300 modern and traditional board games and play as many as you like. There will even be ‘Game Gurus’ on hand to advise which games will be best suited to your group and help you get started. Alongside the board games, Twist will offer a full café experience and will be open in the evenings too with a license to serve alcohol.
New lease holder, Hayley Summers, grew up in Plymouth but spent five years living in London. Two and a half years ago she returned to her hometown to set up the new venture and enjoy life back in the South West.
The ten year lease officially completed yesterday (26th March), with the extensive fit out expected to take around eight weeks. The grand opening is expected at the end of May, just in time for the summer.
Catherine Gill, commercial property solicitor at GA Solicitors, commented: “I have been delighted to support Hayley with this exciting new project. This transaction reflects predicted trends, showing how the high street is moving away from a more traditional retail environment and instead adapting to provide more experience-led services.
“Careful legal advice was required at the outset as consent for change of use was needed, as well as detailed planning permission. We had to ensure the correct approvals were obtained and that the lease was conditional on gaining planning permission to minimise the risk for the client. Now it has completed, I am very much looking forward to visiting when Hayley is open for business.”
Hayley Summers, new owner of Twist, added: “The board game café concept didn’t even exist ten years ago, now they are popping up all over the UK and further afield. I’m thrilled to be bringing Twist to Plymouth and very happy with our Mayflower Street location.
“Catherine has been absolutely fantastic. Negotiating this lease turned out to be a huge task and she was a solid and reliable source of support throughout. Her work on the transaction has been excellent and I’m confident she has given me the strongest possible foundation on which to build Twist. Now Catherine’s part is done I’m excited to get into the next phase and start refurbishments!”
Catherine Gill is an experienced commercial property solicitor who joined GA Solicitors in 2016 after spending eight years working in Dubai.