‘It’s a disaster’
CITY COUNCIL ‘UNLIKELY’ TO GET BACK ALL OF THE £17M IT PUT INTO FAILED BROADMARSH REVAMP
NOTTINGHAM City Council said it may not be able to claw back all of the money it invested in the Broadmarsh Centre redevelopment prior to Intu collapsing into administration.
Work paused on the centre at the start of Covid-19 pandemic, and never restarted, leaving a partially demolished building in the middle of the city.
The city council had put £17m into the regeneration of the site, which would have featured a cinema, bowling alley, shops, restaurants and bars.
The council, which owns the freehold of the site, said it would need to apply for further funding in order to take “anything forward”.
The leader of the Conservative group said the council had “blindly pushed ahead” with the £17m investment, and should have put safeguards in place.
But council leader Councillor David Mellen said: “The pandemic has caused a massive shock to economies around the world, having a major impact on construction projects, with the retail sector and high street particularly badly hit.
“The redevelopment of the shopping centre was Intu’s project.
“As Nottingham City Council had a freehold and financial interest, a comprehensive development agreement was in place for the project, with clear contractual obligations.
“The agreement involved the council putting a contribution into the project, in view of our status as the freeholder of the site, and in return for rental received from the centre.
“We had made
part of our contribution, and this has helped pay for work such as the removal of asbestos from the centre and work that needed to be done whatever the future of the centre, and ground works that will also be helpful in the future. “Our lawyers are looking again at the development agreement to see if any money might be returned, but it seems unlikely at this stage that we will be recompensed for all the money we have invested. “While we may not get all of our
investment back through the administration process, this is a valuable site in the city centre which the council now owns, and we will be exploring options for its development which will bring us income and mitigate any losses over time.”
Shopper Terry Curtis, 66, of Sneinton, said: “Part of me has sympathy with the city council. No-one predicted this and this does not benefit anyone. It’s a bit of a disaster for Nottingham to be honest.”
Sarah Martin, 33, of Strelley, added: “It is quite upsetting to hear that figure of £17m. That is people’s council tax wasted on a failed pro
ject. It is a mess for the city and will need sorting.”
The leader of the Conservative group, Councillor Andrew Rule, has asked Councillor Mellen whether £17m was the limit of the exposure, or whether there may be any further liabilities.
He said: “We were in partnership with Intu, that was a partnership drawn up through a development agreement. The fact is, this company, which was struggling before Covid came, but Covid was the straw that broke the camel’s back in this area, and therefore the work was stopped and the company went into administration.
“We didn’t put all our money in, we were putting it in in instalments, so we haven’t paid for all the money we were planning to do, which is a very good thing.
“Whether there will be further liabilities is a matter of work that we need to do now in terms of having an assessment of the site and what needs to be done, its value, getting some experts in there to see what the state of it is.
“Clearly from sight, those of us who are not engineers or any experts can see that the work is half finished, and therefore whatever happens in the future, work will need to be done to make the site secure.
“We will need to work in partnership with others and we will need to apply for further amounts of funding to enable us to take anything forward on that site.”