Concern over council move to buy run-down city-centre retail park

OPPOSITION COUNCILLORS have urged caution after Hull Council said it was looking at buying a run-down retail park in the city centre.

The Saudi Arabian owner of the Myton Retail Park, which used to house office supplies firm Staples, has invited the council to consider acquiring the prominent site next to the A63 and the new £36m Bonus Arena.

The move follows the council’s recent purchase of the freeholds of the empty BHS/Co-op and Edwin Davis buildings as part of £130m plans to create one of the largest single developable sites in the city centre since post-war reconstruction.

Liberal Democrat group leader Coun Mike Ross said he would not want to see the land “sitting on the council’s back for years and years”.

He said: “While bringing on more retail space alongside what is planned at BHS might look like a way of bringing more people into the city that has to be balanced against demand.

“There are still questions over who long term would take the site on and how long if the council buy it, they would hold it for.

“I can see the role of the intervention of the state in issues like this but it has to be done in conjunction with business. Ultimately it is the private sector which is best placed to take these sorts of sites on.”

It is not the first time the site has been earmarked for redevelopment. More than a decade ago it was due to be part of the £440m Quay West development, which never got off the drawing board.

The site is now owned by Riyadh-based investment bank Jadwa Investment, which purchased Princes Quay shopping centre in 2010.

Conservative group leader Coun John Fareham said: “I hope the council has the capacity to bring forward both developments swiftly and we do not see slow progress as an excuse to vary other plans.”

The council said the purchase of the site would be subject to an independent evaluation. Once agreed it will prepare a development and planning brief that will be used to market the site to potential investors.

Deputy council leader Coun Daren Hale claimed the site would breathe new life into the area. He added it would “facilitate the resurgence” of the area and “act as an impressive gateway to the city centre following the A63 improvements”.