Council chiefs green light shopping centre rescue plan

North East Lincolnshire Council is set to buy Freshney Place Shopping Centre in Grimsby out of receivership after planning chiefs approved the move.

As reported by TheBusinessDesk.com, the Grimsby centre went into receivership earlier this year, with the deadline for bids for its sale closing last month.

Members of the Full Council gave the plan the thumbs up last night (14 July) – a decision Council Leader Philip Jackson said was “vital” to ensure a healthy future for Grimsby town centre.

Freshney Place makes up 60% of the town centre’s retail offering, supporting one in five jobs in the area.

Cllr Jackson said: “We needed to take this course of action to make sure we can continue to deliver our transformation of the urban heart of Grimsby. If we didn’t agree to buy the centre, it could be bought by someone who is unwilling to invest and the decline of the heart of our town centre would be devastating.”

The council says it will take an “arms-length” approach to running the centre by appointing external asset managers to handle day-to-day operations.

The news comes as it was also revealed that local cinema company The Parkway is the operator behind plans to open a big screen within a planned new development at the western end of Freshney Place.

Jackson added: “To enable this regeneration to continue, Freshney Place, a huge space in our town centre, must have a stable future. If this becomes Council-owned, this would mean that we could take Freshney Place into account when we’re looking at the transformation of the whole of our town centre, potentially bringing in different offers, using the centre in different and more modern ways to reduce its current over-reliance on retail.”