Progress being made with Coventry’s regen masterplan

WITH much pomp and ceremony, property industry leaders and city council chiefs launched a grand vision – the Big City Plan – for the future regeneration of Birmingham last week.

TheBusinessDesk.com speaks to the man charged with pulling off a similar a trick for the city of Coventry with its ‘Jerde Masterplan’.

“I would be really disappointed if I don’t see further progress on that by the end of the year.”

Martin Yardley, head of the development directorate at Coventry City Council, is talking about the ‘Friargate’ project which has big plans for the area around Coventry railway station.

Developers Cannon Kirk want to take what is, to be frank, not the most aesthetically pleasing of locales when you land in the city, and turn it into something far more business and visitor friendly.

Mr Yardley said ideas were first put forward for Friargate seven years ago but progress is finally being made.

“We have already approved 3m sq ft of office space, two hotels and 400 apartments. It equates to £1.5bn of investment around the railway station.

“I would not be surprised if we received a further application for the site.”

So what of the Jerde Masterplan, named after the LA architects the Jerde Partnership, which were signed up to transform the city centre.

It was first announced over two-and-a-half years ago with firm £1bn plans unveiled following a public consultation in September 2008.

These included new parks, waterways, 1.3m sq ft of retail space, a library and other public buildings.

“The Jerde Masterplan was to generate the interest of the public and the interest of the landowners,” Mr Yardley said.

“We lose half of our catchment. Half of retail spend by Coventry people is spent outside Coventry. The retail offer does not punch its weight.”

Around 20% of the land in Coventry city centre is owned by Coventry and Warwick universities with the city council owning the majority of the remainder.

“That makes us quite rare. We want to bring the other landowners to the table,” he said.

“We want to show in the current economic climate there’s a workable sale.”

Mr Yardley said the council was working “on the next step” of the Jerde project, but remained tight lipped about exactly what that next step would be.

He did at least confirm that the first project to be realised from the masterplan would take place in the south side of the city.

“We are within the realms of agreement with the landowners,” he added.

Other projects in the pipeline include two possible new hotels at the Ricoh Arena.

De Vere recently signed a rebranding deal for the 71-bedroom hotel at the conference centre in a bid to boost its conference and meetings offering.

A further two hotel chains are currently going through the application process to build new hotels next to arena which would boost the total number of bedrooms to 300.