Pressure is growing on Powergen to go public with the timetable for redevelopment of its 9.71ha (24 acre) site in Leicester. There is increasing concern that the DOE’s decision to grant consent for a new retail warehouse scheme next to Fosse Park by the M1 on the city’s outskirts has set back the site’s development schedule.
Powergen has not yet signed a development agreement with Leicester City Challenge for the cleared land at Freeman’s Common. A mixed retail/leisure development has been proposed with the riverside frontage retained as public open space.
City Challenge chief executive Keith Beaumont has been quoted in the local press as saying that the delays are partly due to the decision to approve retail warehouse development on the former Oliver’s shoe factory next to Fosse Park. This had forced Powergen to reconsider its plans, he claimed. But he was confident that reclamation work would begin soon.
Fraser Robson, the council’s assistant director of regeneration and development, said the council was waiting for Powergen to come up with more detailed proposals. A Powergen spokesman would only say that discussions were continuing with the council.
- Castlemore Securities beat off competition from 30 other bidders to buy Oliver’s long lease for £24.9m last May. The site has consent for 12,634 sq m (136,000 sq ft) of retail warehouse space, mainly pre-let to PC World, Currys and Carpetright.
EGi News 07/04/97
