Death knell for city’s dream?
Shock as developer pulls out of ‘Northern Quarter’ plans, but civic leader is adamant Portsmouth can go it alone
MAJOR redevelopment plans for Portsmouth city centre, first mooted in 2005, have suffered a major setback as a key developer pulled out.
Property investor Delancey has ended its partnership with Portsmouth City Council, leaving a question mark over proposals for the north of the city centre.
Council leader Gerald Vernon Jackson insisted the city could plough on alone, but critics doubt whether that is viable.
Fears have been raised that ambitious city centre regeneration plans 17 years in the making will ‘fail’ again, after a major investor pulled out of a council deal.
Property investor Delancey, which entered into a partnership with Portsmouth City Council in 2019, has confirmed the collaboration has ended — leaving a question mark over proposals for the north of the city.
The group owns a long leasehold of the former Tricorn site — now the Market Way car park — which was earmarked for re-development as part of a scheme as far back as 2004, previously known as the Northern Quarter and City Centre North projects.
City council leader, Councillor Gerald VernonJackson, believed this actually meant work could progress more quickly.
‘The council for a long time has been trying to rebuild the city centre — or the northern quarter — with Delancey,’ he said.
‘They have been very slow about bringing forward plans and now they have now said they are going to walk away.
‘So this is really good news. We are hoping they will sell the site to us.
‘Councils shouldn’t always get involved with large development schemes but where the private sector has failed for more than 15 years we need to step in and make this happen.’
It comes after the council bought the Sainsbury’s site on Commercial Road this year to use the land as part of the regeneration, which includes creating a new road into the city alongside the existing road out in Hope Street.
Cllr Vernon-Jackson added: ‘We own almost everything north of that part of the A3. That means we have somewhere where we can start development and get something moving on the site.
‘We would use the site for a mix of residential, commercial, retail and restaurants.’
But former council leader and Portsmouth Conservative boss, Cllr Donna Jones, claimed it was a ‘backwards’ step.
She previously told The News her group had set aside £15m to re-develop the city centre when in power.
Cllr Jones said: ‘The Lib Dems failed for 10 years to build the northern quarter then again in the last three years.
‘And now they have not just failed to move forward, they have taken it backwards. Delancey is a key player.
‘If the leader says he wants to acquire the Delancey land and develop a regeneration project on his own, how is he going to pay for it?
‘How are the taxpayers going to pay for it?
‘The people of Portsmouth deserve better and this could be the end for Commercial Road.’
Her deputy, Cllr Luke Stubbs, added: ‘At the end of the day Delancey will be looking to make a profit so it’ll probably be the case that the land will make the most money if used for tower block housing rather than what the council wants to do.’
But Cllr Vernon-Jackson said it would be possible to borrow the money required and he was confident Delancey would ‘step aside’ from the project.
In 2019 the administration claimed the partnership would ‘de-risk’ the city centre scheme by having the backing of a private company.
Labour councillor Cal Corkery said: ‘The Labour group raised concerns about the partner venture with Delancey back in 2019 before it was decided.
‘Delancey is exactly the same developer for the failed Northern Quarter project.
‘I could not see any good reason why it would be different this time.
‘The council is still the freeholder of the site.
‘If Delancey isn't going to do something with the land soon the council should move towards a compulsory purchase order of the land.’
Cllr Vernon-Jackson added that a compulsory purchase order was considered in 2007, but had not been possible.
A spokeswoman for Delancey said the pandemic was a ‘significant factor’ in causing delays.
‘As a proposed partnership, we certainly looked at a few different options for the site, however, during this period other more immediate projects have been prioritised by Portsmouth City Council as part of their overall plans to improve the city centre,’ she said.
‘As the country comes out of lockdown and people return to the city centre we will look at options for the site to maximise the assets long term interests.’
Delancey would not comment on how much they had spent on plans since 2019.
In 2017 it was reported that the council had submitted a £25m bid to the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for the City Centre North scheme.
The LEP confirmed the funding application from the council was withdrawn in October 2019.