Marine Plaza

The Marine Plaza was designed to breathe new life into the semi derelict Dizzyland located on the junction of Eastern Esplanade & Southchurch Avenue directly opposite the Kursaal. The £100 million scheme would have seen the demolition of the block including the Dizzyland site, The Ship pub, the Foresters Arms, The Rock Shop, Happiland Arcade and up to 50 shops and houses. The 16-storey entertainment super-complex was proposed by John Remblance’s JBR Leisure Company and would have included: 5,500 square metre casino 100 bed four star hotel with balconies for each room 126 luxury apartments (13 single-bedroom, 88 two-bedroom and 25 three-bedroomed flats) 600 square metres of Conference facilities 2000 Square metres of Cafés & Bistros 2000 Square meters of Leisure & Entertainment facilities 1900 square meter members only nightclub 2000 square metres of Arcades & Children’s facilities. Bars Ice Cream Parlour Health and Fitness centre with swimming pool 650 parking spaces The scheme was originally submitted to the council in 2005 and was approved in July 2006, the council placed conditions on the approval that £1.5 million would be paid by the developers to the council to be spent on road improvements and community facilities. However, with a down turn in the economy funding was not available to start work, problems also arose from the complex ownership of the land needed for the project, with the developers unable to buy all the land they needed, the project stalled further as the recession took hold. The scheme completely collapsed in August 2009 when JBR Leisure fell in to administration, the site was taken over by the administrators. The Dizzyland arcade continued to trade but eventually closed down. On 13th July 2010 the site was sold by Nat West to Goldfield Developments for £2.25 million. The open air section of the site was taken on lease from the administrators by MET Parking Service who opened a 200 space car park in 2010.

Southend-on-Sea