So the news is out there – Nottingham City Council are to invest £50m of ‘my’ money into the Broadmarsh Centre. Intu are going to have to find the other two-thirds in this £150m project.
Leader of the Council, Jon Collins said in a statement, “It is in our interests and it is in Intu’s interests for them to get on with it. If Intu wasn’t serious about this, they would not have spent the time and effort they have done working on every last dot and comma of a deal. It has involved many hours of negotiations and I am absolutely convinced of their intent.”
Great news?
Well, sort of. Intu ‘refused to comment’ on the story. Cynically I cannot begin to imagine why? Surely the story is a great one for the City and for them? Why issue a no comment?
In fairness at the time of the announcement they were tweeting…
Says it all really. Penguins.
Hi Tim,
I take your point about it still being difficult to flush out the type of confirmation we all hope for from INTU about the future of Broadmarsh and in particular the sequencing of starts there and at Victoria Centre. However I would make the follow comment; the City Council is part owner of the Broadmarsh, a situation dating back to its very first construction in the 70’s. Although that share has been diluted in lieu of additional investment by the major shareholder, firstly POSTEL and then others down the years the Council still has a stake, and the revenue stream from it supports other Council activity.
Thus the Council investment of £50m is in respect of both roles; part owner and as kick starting essential development in this part of the City. In my view a good deal long overdue!
John Taylor
john, I agree it is a great message. My real concern though is that Intu have been deafeningly silent in their response. And I just wonder why?
There have been so many false starts to this project that it is hard not to be cynical. I genuinely hope I am wrong – I really hope they do confirm their intentions and that they have a reasonable timescale attached. If they started tomorrow that would be too late in some peoples view…
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