City council buys town retail park for £15.6m

A RETAIL park, shopping parade and car park in Sutton Coldfield have been bought by Birmingham City Council in a multi-millionpound deal.

Newhall Walk Retail Park, along with 15 shops and restaurant premises in the Parade, have been snapped up by the authority for £15.6 million from pension fund Railpen, the former British Rail pension fund.

The deal includes the premises of TGI Fridays, TK Maxx, B&M and all the shops and units from Aldi in the Parade up to and including Coffee #1.

Among the units the city council will now be landlord for are Waterstones, Poundland, Trespass and Smart Ideas.

Also included are the units for Vodafone, Toni and Guy, The Entertainer, CEX and Vodafone. Despite troubled times for high streets, just one of the units, the former Jimmy Spices restaurant above Aldi, remains vacant.

The deal comprises a five-acre site with some 126,333 square feet of retail space and parking.

With land owned at the Red Rose Centre, it means the city council now owns approximately half the centre of Sutton.

The move is said to align with the vision of the Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Centre Masterplan. The plan aims to ‘‘evolve and reimagine the town’’.

Cllr David Pears, town and city councillor for the town centre area (Sutton Trinity, Con) welcomed the move but said redevelopment of the site may be some years away.

He said: “What is important is we have certainty of the retail offer in the town. It’s vital these retailers are retained while plans are formed. I think it will be some considerable time for redevelopment to take place and it’s vital we continue filling empty units around the town to keep it vibrant.

“This is the city council investing in the town council masterplan. It feels like a snowball moving downhill now, beginning to gather momentum. It’s important we keep that momentum.”