The saga of the Nottingham Broadmarsh centre continues. Ever since CSC acquired the centre from Westfield in 2011 the centre has faced an uncertain future and has gradually gone (further) downhill. It’s a pretty sad place.
The dream of Broadmarsh – Westfield style…
Yesterday Intu (formerly known as CSC) published their annual account. And it contains some little nuggets to tell you about their intentions for Nottingham. Don’t get too excited.
In essence the order of batting is:
Victoria Centre refurbishment 2013-15 – £38m
Broadmarsh refurbishment …
Victoria Centre extension …
In respect of the latter two, the picture is suitably vague, they say, “we are progressing plans for refurbishment of the Victoria Centre, which will be followed by the redevelopment of Broadmarsh and the extension of the Victoria Centre”. The timescale for their “Nottingham Projects” is 2016-19 and the sum put aside is £260m. There’s no split as to where the money is going. But last September CSC denied they were shelving plans for a “£240m for the Victoria Centre extension”. It’s always dangerous to mix two lots of ‘data’ – but if the maths are right that leaves £20m for Broadmarsh?
In shopping centre terms thats just about a lick of paint and some new patio doors leading to the station?
There is some logic though here. CSC bought Broadmarsh from Westfield for £55m. Their asset value in their accounts for Victoria Centre is £308m. Victoria Centre has always been the better centre, it gets the early cash injection (£38m) for refurbishment. I think you can see what Intu think of Broadmarsh…. Not much!
This is not the right answer for Nottingham.
Awful news.
Could the council force a purchase and then sell to someone actually interested in redevelopment? This development is key to that side of the cities regeneration
Russell, no sadly not…
According to nottingham evening post, 150 million will be spent on broadmarsh and 100 million on vc extension, but council dont see eye to eye with intu over vc extension which is good http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/pound-36m-refurbishment-scheduled-Victoria/story-18274906-detail/story.html
It doesn’t make sense to extend Victoria Centre until after Broadmarsh has been resolved – we already have too many shops. Extending northwards will further weaken the south.
why cant intu just drop there plans for vc extension and just redevelop broadmarsh? Surely if they extend vc it will weaken the city centre and alot of shops will close, why cant they see that. Tim, cant the ‘invest in nottingham group’ give some input to the city council or intu on this matter?
Craig, Intu are very commercial operators. They will know the impact of just developing VC against Broadmarsh. But money is at play here…
I don’t think any amount of representation is going to change the fact that they will prioritise VC.
Not good for Nottingham.