Greater Manchester Pension Fund — which manages am £11bn pension pot for the 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester— has just spent £10m on buying a run-down shopping centre.
The 17-shop precinct at Chorlton, four miles from the city centre, has suffered years of stalled or abandoned redevelopment schemes, the latest in 2012 when its new owners unveiled plans for a £15m facelift. As well as attempting to persuade NHS Manchester to move a nearby health centre on to the site, CityBranch also attempted to lure one of the big four food retailers into a supermarket it wanted to build on the car park.
When that scheme failed the 1970s-built precinct was passed on to Development Securities, which added “considerable value” to the site, but failed to get council agreement for its transformation plans. Now, after three months of negotiations, the pension fund has acquired the property.
A spokeswoman for GMPF, which last year put £25m of its money into a joint venture with Manchester City Council to kick-start the building of 240 new homes, said there were no plans on the table for its newly acquired shopping centre. Nor had a developer been appointed. “At his stage it is merely a good investment opportunity,” she added.
Boots pharmacy is currently the site’s biggest occupier, with a cafe, and several bakeries among the other existing tenants.
Every previous regeneration scheme has involved the demolition of the existing retail units with a realignment of the site to include supermarket on the car park. An office block on the site would be refurbished.
A major stumbling block in the three-way wrangle between owners, traders and local planners has always been the arrival of a large supermarket. “We will be pushing for free parking for shoppers when the precinct is finally redeveloped, and vigorously opposing any moves to allow one of the ‘big four’ supermarkets to move in,” commented Chorlton councillor, Matt Strong, on news of the mall’s new owner.
Last October, he wrote on his blog: “We have been promised grand plans in the past, and at one point a planning application was imminent. However, since the previous owners of the precinct (CityBranch) sold their share to Development Securities, it has become clear that the shopping centre will not be redeveloped any time soon … In the meantime, some of the businesses in the precinct are struggling and this part of the ward is now looking quite shabby.”
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Knock it down. Start again. Build something substantial on the site. Booths is a good idea, so is a good gym and so is a decent hotel that brings out of town money to our local businesses. Would be a mistake to not include all 3. Steer clear of big chains retail wise.