Prospects for Rochdale scheme improving, says Genr8

THE FUNDING deal for Rochdale’s transport hub and the purchase of a car dealership has “cleared the decks” for Genr8’s  £150m regeneration scheme, says director Mike Smith.

Smith described the decision announced by Chancellor George Osborne last week to provide £11.5m help build the new bus and tram interchange as “a huge boost for Rochdale”.

It followed on from a deal between the council and motor dealer Reeve (Derby) to purchase its Pentagon Vauxhall dealership on John St also announced last month. It will now move to the site of a former Mitsubishi dealership on Queensway.

“That effectively deals with the site assembly,” said Smith. “The John St dealership took up a fairly large area of the site. It was the one remaining major land interested that needed to be acquired.

“It’s removed all of the obstacles – all we have to do now is to go out and do what we do best to deliver the scheme.”

Genr8 was chosen to bring forward a new £150m town centre regeneration scheme by Rochdale Council in October 2009. It gained £100m in funding from Japanese investor Kajima in September 2010 for its foodstore-led development, which is set to include around 30 new retail units, a cinema, and some cafes and restaurants to boost the town’s evening economy.

Talks have also been held between Rochdale Council and the owners of the adjoining Wheatsheaf Centre about a potential purchase of the centre, which could then be incorporated into a wider remodelled scheme.

“Whether that will happen or not, I don’t know – you’d have to speak to the council about it,” said Smith. He added that Genr8 was in regular discussions with the Wheatsheaf’s owners, but its priority was currently to make sure the centre linked properly with its proposed scheme.

Smith argued that that there is interest among occupiers for Genr8’s scheme, and that it had held discussions with a number of operators interested in the 90,000 sq ft foodstore element.

“We now need to secure the anchor tenants. Once we’ve done that, it allows us to go to the wider market and fill in the gaps.

A planning application for the scheme had been expected to be submitted this year, but delays in funding for the transport interchange mean that this has slipped back to 2012. The scheme will now complete either in 2014 or 2015, Gener8 said.

“There’s no doubt that the market is tough, but we feel this is a huge opportunity. There are a number of national retailers who do not have a presence in the town.”

Rochdale Council’s town centre management arm has attempted to address the problem of high rates of void retail units in the town centre in recent years and has introduced initiatives such as free parking after 3pm.

However, the Wheatsheaf centre lost its anchor tenant earlier this year following the collapse of TJ Hughes and fast food retailer McDonald’s recently closed its town centre restaurant.