Chester Northgate development scaled back by £160m
LAND Securities has been appointed as a joint development partner to help plan a downsized version of the delayed Northgate redevelopment scheme in Chester.
The commercial property group will work with ING Real Estate and Chester City Council to redesign the scheme to a new £300m budget – a £160m downsizing from the original city centre development plan.
Land Securities will jointly fund the redesign work with ING and retain the option of investing in the scheme at a later date.
Previous partner Warren Private client is understood to have walked away from the deal to fund the scheme last year, as a fall in values made it financially unviable.
Then, in October, Chester City Council said it would wait until the market began to recover and postponed work on the development until 2012 because of the economic climate.
A spokesperson for the council told TheBusinessDesk there was still a lot to clarify.
“We are still working towards 2012, but following the redesign, this may change,” the spokesperson said.
The original £460m was to include 440,000 sq ft of shopping and leisure facilities, a new performing arts centre, library, market hall, bus station, several civic squares, as well as 124 residential apartments.
Steve Wehrle of Land Securities said: “The current economic climate is limiting new development right across the country. We believe, however, that Chester is a scheme that has potential, and could support a first rate retail-led development.
“Land Securities’ strength of experience allows us to use these difficult times to identify, research and refine the very best development opportunities, so that they can be brought forward, at the earliest appropriate time.”
David Alker, development director of ING Real Estate, said: “We have been in detailed discussions with a number of potential partners for the project and are delighted to have been able to select one of the UK’s leading property companies from keen competition between other potential partners.”
