The Prince of Denmark pub in Norwich has reopened as a coffee and beer house with developments ongoing to convert some of the building into flats.
The site in Denmark Road has been closed since 2018 and was purchased by property developer Dan Trivedi who is converting the building into four flats.
A house is also set to be built in the car park of the property.
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However as well as converting the land for residential use Mr Trivedi has retained a portion of the pub and converted it into a café selling Strangers coffee, and a beer outlet.
“We were open for a couple of weeks before lockdown for a couple of hours every other day,” Mr Trivedi said. “But since we’ve started doing the Strangers coffee we’ve had about four times the amount of turnover – it’s just gone mad. We knew there was an appetite for good coffee in NR3 so we’re so pleased with how it’s been received.”
As well as the conversions to the bar area and the renovations for the flats and house, Mr Trivedi expects he will have invested about £350,000 in the site.
“I’ve worked on a lot of pub conversions and we’ve tried at each point to keep an element of the pub trade if it’s possible and viable - I think a lot of developers would look at pub buildings and say the trade isn’t worth it but I think it’s important to try and adapt it into a situation that works,” he said.
Mr Trivedi has hired a manager and four members of staff to man the commercial element of the site.
He added that he was also one of the businesses which slipped through the cracks for vital funding during the pandemic.
“Because we were only trading for a few weeks before the pandemic we don’t have a rateable value to reflect the fact we’re opened. Because of this we’ve had some problems with licensing – which is why we can’t sell beer yet – and lost out on about £10,000 of grants,” he said.
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