Management team takes on The Kremlin
New owner of the Kremlin complex, Anthea Wilson (left), director of Anthology NI, is pictured with her management team (from left): Daniel Allen, general manager; Adrian McClay, entertainments and PR manager; Tirzah Pollock, Kremlin manager and Roisin Walls, Union Street Bar manager.
In a commercial deal thought to be one of the largest seen in the Belfast licensed trade in recent years, The Kremlin complex, which includes The Kremlin Club, Union Street Bar and The Shoe Factory Club has been bought over by Anthology NI at a figure close to the £3m asking price.
Formed in 2009 to lease and run the Kremlin, Anthology NI has taken on full ownership of the iconic venues, which are popular haunts for the LGBT community.
Anthea Wilson, director of Anthology NI, who has driven growth in the company for the last five years, is delighted to be taking over ownership of the complex, which launched with the Kremin Club in 1999. She said that it will be ‘business as usual’ at the premises, which holds weekly themed nights and hosts live music and drag acts.
“Value will be a key theme for us as we move into this next exciting phase of our business development,” she added. “We believe we already have the best value private hire in Belfast, and we will be launching a proactive marketing campaign to take our blend of value, quality food and entertainment, together with funky and stylish surroundings, to the widest possible audiences.”
Hinting that there would be “an imaginative and fun addition” to the seven-nights-a-week complex in the spring, Anthea said that the new management of the venue intended to carefully manage corporate hire at the Kremlin to ensure that it complemented existing trade patterns:
“There has never been a better time to invest in this area and we look forward to the commercial opportunities which will be created with the opening of the new University of Ulster’s campus on York Street which is due to be operational late 2018,” she added. “The Kremlin complex is ideally positioned to play a lead role in what will be an exciting re-energising of this corner of the city.”
