The new owner of Brighton’s i360 has described taking over the seafront attraction as one of the “biggest” risks of her life.
Sarah Willingham, founder and chief executive of Nightcap Ltd, bought the tower for £150,000 after it unexpectedly closed in December 2024.
The attraction reopened exactly one year ago, with Brighton and Hove City Council having written off £51 million in debtto secure the sale.
The i360’s former chief executive, Eleanor Harris, said the tower would transform Brighton’s tourism prospects, when it was opened in 2016.
“We are putting Brighton on the map and promoting the city around the globe,” she added.
However, it divided local opinion.
Valerie Paynter, of the saveHove campaign, said at the time the i360 was “like something springing horribly out of the earth in a horror movie”.
Others called estimates of how many people would use it “ambitious”.
The tower’s operators said visitor numbers had not recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
In 2014, the council had agreed to lend £36.2m to Brighton i360 Ltd to fund the tower, which gives visitors views of the Sussex coast and South Downs.
The local authority was set to receive 1% of ticket sales and more than £1m per year in interest on the loan plus business rates. However, the attraction struggled to make money and pay back its debts.
By 2024, council leader Bella Sankey warned funding for early years education and cost of living support in the city had suffered due to missed debt repayments by the i360.
That same year it filed for administration.