Council plans to build retail park

A new retail park at Broadbridge Heath could include a discount food store and drive-through takeaway restaurant.

West Sussex County Council is proposing to spend £15.47million building four new units on its highways depot next to Tesco and just off the old bypass.

The proposed retail park would consist of pre-let and ‘built to specification’ units.

In 2019 a viability study concluded a retail scheme would be the preferred option for regenerating the site and a marketing exercise attracted considerable interest.

A further marketing exercise resulted in four retailers being identified and these have since agreed heads of terms to enter into leases, subject to planning permission being secured and otherconditions.Accordingto a report: “The units include a discountfoodstore,aDIYstore and garden centre, a drivethrough takeaway restaurant and a coffee shop. The site will be landscaped to include appropriate parking facilities and two access points.”

The identities of the potential occupiers have not been made public, with sensitive commercial information contained in confidential reports. The leases would provide a revenue income stream and a return on the county council’s investment. The units would be designed and built to the individual retailers’ detailed specifications. One retailer would build their own unit with the council completing ground works and making a capital contribution by way of a reverse premium.

Theproposedschemeisdue to be discussed by the county council’s performance and finance scrutiny committee today.