Hastings Pier will reopen with an official ceremony this week, nearly six years after it was gutted in a devastating fire.

The 144-year-old structure was almost destroyed by the blaze in 2010. But after a £14.2m redevelopment, its new owners are implementing a phased reopening from this week.

The former pavilion will open first, but the public will be able to walk around the entire pier for the first time in almost a decade.

A spokesman for the Hastings Pier Charity (HPC), which runs it, said: “We hope it will re-energise Hastings, not just as a tourist destination, but it gives a fantastic new facility to local people, as well.”

Hastings Borough Council estimates the attraction, rebuilt over two-and-a-half years, will generate more than £1m a year for the local economy.

After a prosperous period in the mid-20th century, the pier, built in 1872, suffered a decline as tourists set their sights farther afield.

And by 2006 it had fallen into such disrepair that it had to be closed for safety reasons.

Although it reopened briefly, the gates were closed for good in 2008, and when fire wrecked 95% of what was left in 2010, its future looked bleak.

But Hastings Borough Council compulsorily purchased it from its previous owners in 2012, and the so-called “people’s pier” is now in the hands of the HPC and more than 3,000 shareholders, who bought into the project at £100 a share.

It is anticipated the pier will generate more than 300,000 extra visitors to Hastings per year; an extra £1.2m for the local economy; and create 40 new jobs.

Lawrence Bell, who runs the White Rock Hotel near the seafront, said the 2010 fire had galvanised the campaign to save the building.

He said: “It was a symbol of Hastings in decline and all the problems that we have had in the past. But there is so much going on now in Hastings. It’s one of the jewels in the crown of what is an amazing little town on the seaside.”

The story provides an update on the pier – which was built at a cost of £8,000 and opened in 1873 – but which failed to reach its £400,000 guide price at auction last month. Now, this Victorian pleasure pier has been sold at a subsequent auction with the auctioneers concerned, Swindells, confirming it has been sold to a “venture partnership” in excess of its guide price, but offering no further details.

There are still piers and penny arcades but now there are also arts festivals and literary events. This piece reminds us of the importance of looking after surviving vicotrian piers and pleasure palaces, with new uses often having to be found for them – sometimes with help of European funding and the Lottery or in this case, private investors.

As proved in Southwold, along with their seaside bedfellow the beach hut they can be important drivers for the rural coasal tourism industry.