Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake have the go-ahead to develop a new sports bar in St Andrews.
The Courier reported that refurbishment of the famous town’s New Picture House will begin later this year and could be open in 2025. Fife Council are said to have approved the plans that were submitted earlier this year.
The new T-Squared Social venue will be a “family-friendly cinema, dining and entertainment offering” so say representatives behind the project. Two out of the three current cinema screens are expected to be retained, as well as the New Picture House name.
This news emerged nine months after over 9,000 names signed a petition to block the development that will sit near the Old Course where Woods won two of his three Claret Jugs at The Open Championship.
The plans fuelled fury in some locals, one being Ash Johann Curry-Machado who said the redevelopment threatened to “strip away a vital part of our town’s identity and history.”
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Tiger Woods bar: St Andrews venue given green light despite immense opposition
Neil Dobson, a member of the St Andrews Community Council said, “I find this very disrespectful and a bit cheeky, to be honest. This town has been very good to Tiger Woods and this is not the way to repay residents.
Johann Curry-Machado, a student at the University of St Andrews, wrote in the petition, “The proposed transformation of the New Picture House into a luxury sports bar by T-Squared Social, an American company, is deeply alarming.
“Under these plans, the cinema will be reduced to a single screen, overshadowed by golf simulators and cocktail bars that cater predominantly to wealthy tourists. Such a development is out of touch with the needs and desires of the local community and the student population.”
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The loudness of opposition to the bar can’t be understated, but Woods and Timberlake, who opened their first T-Squared Social hub in New York, have been given the green light after planning officers said the development would “protect and enhance the character and appearance” of the town.
The venue will include a restaurant, a public bar and one full-time cinema screen, with the other showing live sports and films. The new building will ideally become a “social hub” in the town having experienced a “steep decline” for several years in its current form.
The exterior of the listed building will remain unchanged and the venue is set to employ between 40 and 50 staff while offering the 10 people who work there now to keep their jobs.
“It is fabulous to see the amazing support we have received from the community for these proposals, and to see them getting the green light from Fife Council,” David Morris, the manager director of the New Picture house, said.
“The intervention by T-Squared not only allows a cinema offering to be retained for the town but indeed the building itself. This is the right company, we felt, to maintain the family legacy that has been up for almost a century.
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