Buckley is confident that the first phase of the renovation work will be “relatively straightforward”.
“We’re putting in the basic stuff to make the building habitable, installing some electrics and lighting, checking all sort of fire safety and other health and safety issues and so on so that we can move our studios over here.”
The second phase of the project will see members of the public invited to invest with the launch of a community shares issue later this year.
That aims to raise £150,000 to enable the bar and function room to reopen and to host performances by Spring 2027.
“Overall, we’re probably going to have to invest about half a million to bring this building back into its optimal state and to develop it in ways that make use of some of the land and the footprint that it covers” he said.
Sangita Basudev, co-founder of Sheffield Live, said it was the “last bit of the jigsaw”.
“It’s the dream that we had for Sheffield Live to have its own building and so now the sky’s the limit.”