Wigan prepares to approve £60m town centre revamp
A £60m redevelopment of Wigan town centre should be approved when it goes before the town’s planning committee next week.
The proposals, first mooted last November, involve partially demolishing the Galleries Shopping Centre to re-establish the town’s old street pattern.
The shopping centre has 147 units but 63 are empty, giving it an occupancy rate of 58%.
Under the plans the Victorian Makinson Arcade would be preserved and updated, and lend its name to the new area which will be called the Makinson Quarter.
The idea is to have fewer, but larger retail units, space for a cinema, gym and restaurants. But the changes will also mean moving Wigan’s market to a site fronting Woodcock Street and Market Street. This part of the proposal has prompted 113 letters from people who say the traders will be moved to a “secondary location”.
The arcade, the Galleries and the neighbouring Marketgate centre are part of Propinvest’s Gemini portfolio which went into administration in 2012. CBRE Loan Servicing appointed Deloitte to handle the estate which is working with Vale Retail on the plans. Vale owns or operates six shopping centres including the Wheatsheaf in Rochdale and Prescot Shopping Centre, Merseyside.
Planning officers have recommended the scheme is approved and said: “The proposals represent a very significant and vitally important private investment within the town centre, which will specifically address the decline and high level of vacant units within the Galleries.”
They added: “This development is an exciting opportunity for the town centre to enhance its reputation of being a vibrant place to live and work.”
The scheme will cover 500,000 sq ft and be designed by Edinburgh-based Comprehensive Design Architects.
