Super racecourse:although it has opposition, many believe the track would bring massive economic benefits and employment opportunities
Forget the recent controversy over supercasinos. East Lancashire is gambling on a super racecourse.
Plans for the £100m facility near Hyndburn – reputedly the world’s first racecourse worthy of the prefix “super” – have been cantering around the market for more than two years. But now the ambitious idea is galloping towards a start on site.
This month, a two-year study into the viability of redeveloping the 371-acre site close to the village of Simonstone begins. An early planning application is expected.
The scheme’s developer is a consortium of private individuals backed by the Marquis of Zetland. The group, which is promoting courses in the Far East, promises a hi-tech track designed to improve the safety of both horses and jockeys, along with floodlights for night races, a five-star hotel, a casino, retail and a theme park.
Not everyone in this sleepy corner of the Ribble Valley is delighted at the prospect of there being a serious rival to local race venues such as York, Wetherby and Haydock. They fear that 60 race days a year will mean noise, pollution and a permanent end to their tranquillity.
However, the racecourse plan has won serious backing from the Lancashire Economic Partnership, the NorthWest Regional Development Agency and Blackburn council.
“The development of a racecourse in east Lancashire will bring massive economic benefits and employment opportunities,” says Dennis Taylor, chief executive of the Lancashire Economic Partnership.
“The development consortium has a worldwide track record of development, and there is no reason to believe that it will be any different in its approach to this project.”
Taylor’s reassurance is timely. Local property pundits had been worried that the racecourse plan was not moving forward. The silence between 2005, when the plan was first floated, and a series of talks with regeneration bosses in December 2006, led some to lose faith in the project.
Encouraging activity
Caroline James, senior partner at Trevor Dawson & Co, is among those who are encouraged by the latest burst of activity. “I was more sceptical six months ago, but we had a series of meetings in March led by the NWDA and Blackburn council. I’ve been speaking to landowners around the site, and the racecourse idea seems to have gained real momentum,” she says.
According to James, there will be real commercial spin-offs from the racecourse. “The course will complete a corridor of development between junctions 7 and 8 of the M65 motorway,” she says, pointing to the now-completed 70-acre Shadsworth Mead development by Ribble Estates, and the latest plans, from a local engineering firm, for a 200,000 sq ft business park on the old Philips site.
“The racecourse will add the hotels and conference facilities this corridor needs to become a really substantial business location. We already have hotel operators sniffing around the area,” says James.
The racecourse is not east Lancashire’s only long-term hope. Hurstwood Group’s £50m plans for Burnley’s Weavers Triangle site include restaurants, offices, homes and an 800-capacity music venue. Local councillors have waved the scheme through, and hopes are high that the 6-acre site will become the town’s new cultural powerhouse.
Much also hangs on the successful completion of Henry Boot’s 250,000 sq ft Oval shopping centre in Burnley. Debenhams pulled out of an 85,000 sq ft deal as anchor tenant, and the day when work on site will beginstill seems far off. Some, however, believe Debenhams’ departure could give the Oval a chance to provide something distinctive.
Office market gets back into business
Rising rents and growing investor interest signal that the east Lancashire office market is back in business.
Burnley town centre is suddenly active, thanks to iDB Associates’ revamp of St James House, a 15,000 sq ft 1970s block it bought last September for £1m and has since spent a further £1m refurbishing. At nearby Elizabeth House, a 10,000 sq ft building refurbished by Musso Associates, it is hoped top rents will reach £14 per sq ft. Rents in the town centre have risen from around £9 per sq ft two years ago.
Brent Forbes, partner at Burnley-based Petty chartered surveyors, says: “There’s now a genuine town-centre office market and, while annual take-up has remained fairly constant at 50,000 sq ft, we are seeing rents rise as local occupiers decide it’s worth paying for good-quality space.”
Not surprisingly, rental growth has attracted investors. Marcus Walsh at Robert Pinkus & Co says: “It is due to the lack of supply of quality office accommodation, but it is mainly owner-occupiers that are driving the market forward.”
The area still looks cheap to many buyers. Walsh says that capital values are at least £185 per sq ft in Preston, compared with £150 in Blackburn.
Big-name developers are also moving in. Ribble council has approved £100m plans to build a business park at BAE Systems’ Samlesbury site, while St Modwen is behind the 16-acre Evolution Park scheme next to Blackburn hospital. The 50,000 sq ft speculative first phase will be on site this summer, with quoting rents of £13.50 per sq ft.
