Office development holds key for Stockport, says Goddard

STOCKPORT Council is to begin talks with landlords along the A6 corridor in a bid to generate a private sector-led office redevelopment of its town centre.

Council leader Dave Goddard told TheBusinessDesk.com that Stockport has the potential to become “the second-best office destination” in the Manchester city-region outside of the city centre, and that office development made more sense than trying to resurrect the huge mixed-use developments such as the £1bn Bridgefield scheme abandoned by developer Lend Lease two years ago.

“The days of £1bn town centre investment schemes are over,” he said.

Goddard (right) said that the town’s transport links and its already strong business community provide an attractive place in which to develop office space. He points out that it is the second-wealthiest borough in the area in terms of household income and that more first-class tickets per head are sold from Stockport to London than any other station on Virgin Trains’ West Coast Main Line.

However, he admitted that the council had suffered from a historical reputation as a difficult place in which to invest.

Goddard said that after taking over as leader he canvassed private sector office operators such as Bruntwood who told him that they had stopped attempting to bring schemes forward as it had become too difficult to gain planning approval.

“It was too difficult to do business in Stockport. But I’ve brought in a new team, with a new head of planning who was the ex-head of regeneration so he will look at how can we help to bring schemes forward. We’re all working off the same agenda now,” he said.

“But we need to get that message out to the wider marketplace that Stockport is now a place where they can do business.”

Goddard cites the deal to bring broadcaster BSkyB into the town, which is moving 550 staff into BAM Properties’ St Peter’s Square office scheme in the town as an example of the proactive approach the council is prepared to take in order to bring inward investment into the borough.

“With Sky, people asked how we got that and the answer is we got out to see them. You have to  get off your arse and make the effort, and (council chief executive) Eamonn Boylan and I are very good at that. We’ll go and talk to anyone.”

The council appointed former Newcastle City Council strategy director Paul Rubinstein as head of a new regeneration team in February.

Rubinstein argues that it is to the town’s benefit that many of its investment problems were man-made, and therefore more easy to solve. For instance, he argues that it boasts better connectivity – with the Virgin Trains link and the M60 running through the town centre, than many of the other boroughs in the city-region.

There are signs that progress is being made in the borough. Goddard hails Greater Manchester Property Ventures Fund’s purchase of the former Post Office building – it is planning to build new offices on the site – as something that could help to create better links between the town centre and its station.

Yet there are also still significant challenges. The Merseyway Shopping Centre remains in the hands of its banks following a default on loans by its previous owner last year and recent reports suggest that the owner of the Grand Central scheme, Targetfollow, is also locked in talks with its banks over a potential restructuring, which suggests that neither are about to receive any immediate large-scale investment.

Rubinstein admits that the current state of the Grand Central scheme is an issue given the site’s key location.

“We need to get the key assets into the hands of people who are prepared to invest and want to be in it for the long term,” he said.

Goddard said that the council was aware that Stockport needs a better town centre leisure offer and added that he was keen to see a “quality” hotel operator developing a site in the town.

“We’re clear what services we want to deliver,” said Goddard. “We now need to go and get the people to do that.”