After 18 months of arguments and a three-week planning inquiry, the Secretary of State has finally given the green light to a £50m retail and leisure development in Northamptonshire.
Allowing work to start on the Rushden complex, the Minister ruled the scheme would not only regenerate the local area but would also enhance the environment of Rushden Lakes and the Nene Valley. The investment in services and facilities would, he added, deliver badly needed jobs for which there is “a step-change requirement”.
LXB Retail Properties paid £4.5m for the 31-acre brownfield site alongside the A45 on the edge of Rushden three years ago. Its original application for the 465,000sq ft scheme included a home and garden centre, retail units across three terraces, a drive-through and four seated restaurants, a hotel and crèche, and lakeside visitor centre.
The shopping park element is expected to create at least 1,500 new jobs, with the mall including two anchor retail stores — one rumoured to be Marks & Spencer — and the others taken up by big name retailers such as Next, New Look, Debenhams and JD Sports.
Explaining the significance of the development, Samantha Jones (pictured), a surveyor with Northants-based commercial agents Prop-Search, said: “Rushden East is a ‘sustainable urban extension’ identified as an essential component of Rushden’s ambitions to be a growth town and contributing significantly to North Northamptonshire ambitions to increase housing numbers and jobs.”
A second retail scheme, this time for a new Sainsbury’s store in Thrapston, has received planning consent, but has been delayed until a Traffic Regulations Order has been granted. Early in 2013, East Northamptonshire Council approved the new food store on the site of the town’s cattle market but now, under the order, additional technical highway design work needs to be completed before site work can start.
Work was completed late last year by Roxhill Developments on a 45,000sq ft warehouse facility for Geopost at Raunds. Part of a second phase development at the 80-acre Warth Park — already home to Indesit, Gem Distribution, Avery Dennison and Robert Wiseman Dairies — the site recently saw the completion of a 130,000sq ft office and distribution centre for Dr Martens’ maker AirWair.
The developer has now unveiled plans for 10 acres at the front of the site, which forms a gateway to the development and to Raunds itself from the A45, which it is hoped, will attract interest from hotel, pub and restaurant companies as well as health and fitness businesses.
The freehold investment of Indesit’s distribution centre at Warth Park has also just been sold by Roxhill Developments for £32.5m. The 467,300sq ft “big shed” is leased to the household appliance manufacturer until 2021.
“So whilst East Northamptonshire is a rural district, a significant amount of development has been seen and is being forecast,” concludes Jones. “There are also proposals to redevelop and regenerate the town centre of Raunds and Irthlingborough to ensure they continue to function as traditional market towns.”
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