Uncertain future The redevelopment of Preston city centre may face a public inquiry 10 years after it was first mooted. David Thame reports
With fears mounting that Grosvenor and Lend Lease will walk away from their Preston Tithebarn scheme if it is called in for a public inquiry, questions are being asked about the future of the£700m project that has already taken 10years.
The 32-acre Tithebarn scheme is intended to revolutionise Preston city centre. Anchored by a 230,000 sq ft John Lewis and a 150,000 sq ft Marks & Spencer, it will provide Preston with the kind of modern retail space that it has lacked for decades. The 1.5m sq ft scheme will also include a food market, inspired by London’s Borough Market, which the developers hope will become a magnet for high-quality local producers and discerning foodies.
But the risk of a public inquiry could prompt Tithebarn’s developers to pull out.
Richard Coppell, Lend Lease’s project director for Tithebarn, makes it clear that, if the government insists on a planning inquiry, Grosvenor and Lend Lease may follow the example of Centros in nearby Lancaster. Last month, the developer pulled out of a £140m regeneration of a 10-acre brownfield site in Lancaster city centre after the proposals were called in.
“If the Tithebarn application was called in, we’d have to consider our position. It would be a major disappointment to us,”he says.”Town centre development is difficult now, and the last thing we need is for the planning process to be elongated. No decision has yet been taken by us because Tithebarn has not been called in.”
Preston council chief executive Jim Carr says that the planning application for the Tithebarn development will be considered by the summer.
“We are actively working, in our capacity as development partners, to ensure the best possible case is put before the council’s planning committee, and we are confident that we will be able to meet their requirements,” he insists.
Carr says the council has a plan B, but he does not sound very convinced that it will work. He explains: “Tithebarn is a unique opportunity for a step change in Preston’s prospects. The alternative is incremental change on an opportunistic basis but, in the current economic climate, these opportunities may not arise in the short to medium term.
“Preston would potentially have to bid for significant regional resources to encourage development and deal will the redevelopment of our markets, bus station and Guild Hall.”
Economic climate
Ultimately, the council’s best hope is to persuade communities secretary Hazel Blears not to call the application in for a public inquiry.
“We remain optimistic that Tithebarn will ultimately be given the green light,” he says. “Who in their right minds would turn down £700m of investment in the current economic climate?”
No one knows what Blears will do,but the fact that there are half a dozen marginal Labour constituencies in Lancashire, which the party might prefer not to lose in next year’s general election, could contribute to the outcome.
Grosvenor, Lend Lease and the city council saythe chances of a call-in are low. But others disagree. A highly critical report on the Tithebarn masterplan by the government’s architectural watchdog, CABE, seems to increase the likelihood that a planning inquiry will be held.
CABE’s criticisms are, in the mild language of official reports, about as rude as they come. It says that the Tithebarn plan threatens to make Preston a more rather than less divided city,and recommends that the plan is turned down. It thinks that the planned bus station is an ugly missed opportunity, that connections with inner urban districts are somewhere between bad and non-existent, and that links with the rest of the city centre are unclear.
But CABE reserves its most withering comments for the masterplan as a whole by referring tothe worst town planning mistakes of the past.
Its assessment, published in January, concludes: “We remain concerned at the extent of the proposals, which brings back something of the approach of 1960s-style comprehensive redevelopment, rather than integrating buildings into a truly distinctive new future for Preston city centre.”
Followingthe CABE report and the objections of neighbouring councils, Joe Assalone, partner at Preston agent Robert Pinkus & Co, says the chances of a planning inquiry are high.
“Everyone in the city would welcome a redevelopment but, 10 years after Tithebarn began to be talked about, we still don’t have planning consent. For many businesses in the city centre, this represents planning blight without end,” he says.
“The council and the developers have known for years that Blackpool and Blackburn councils would object to Tithebarn, so why haven’t they held discussions before now? No one will tell us if they have had talks, and what the result is.”
There are cynics in Preston who believethat Grosvenor and Lend Lease had been praying that their planning application would be savaged by CABE and jumped on by neighbouring councils because it would give them an excuse for pulling out of a project in which they both lost interest some time ago. Assalone says he is not among the cynics -but he does see the logic of the argument.
Planning consent
“If they don’t get planning consent, Grosvenor and Lend Lease can gracefully bow out. They could say enough is enough,” he says.
“I can understand why Grosvenor won’t commit to purchasing property in advance of gaining planning consent. But the overall lack of commitment shown by Grosvenor by not coming to the table to talk to the individual occupiers and businesses that are struggling, and continue to struggle, needs to be addressed.”
Lend Lease’s Coppell insists the developer is in Preston for the longterm, and says that it is considering CABE’s comments. He says that the company has done the best it can with the bus station, and has attempted to limit the damage caused by the city’s inner ring road.
“The illustrative drawings we submitted to CABE are merely illustrative -we still have a lot of detailed design to do. But the masterplan on permeability and links with rest of city centre are pretty much fixed. We can’t cure all the ills of the city centre in one fell swoop,” he says.
Coppell insists that the developers have no fears of a public inquiry. He says: “We submitted an outline planning application late last year, and we hope to get a council planning decision in three or four months – perhaps by June. We believe that we have a plan that is consistent with regional and national policy, and would be a major economic driver for the region, so we cannot see a reason for calling it in for an inquiry, and we are not anticipating it being called in.”
Later this summer, Preston will learn whether Tithebarn has a future or whether, despite 10 years of preparation, the city’s hopes of retail revival will have to wait a little longer.
Preston prime rents
Office city: £10 per sq ft
Office out of town: £12 per sq ft
Industrial: £4.25 per sq ft
Deepdale Retail Park: £40 per sq ft
Capitol Retail Park: £22 per sq ft
Zone A prime Fishergate: £140 per sq ft
Zone A secondary: £25 per sq ft
Activity in the sheds
Preston continues to pull in deals in the industrial sector. Two industrial prelets have just been completed at Tustin Way, a speculative development on Red Scar Business Park in Preston East.
Both units have been let on five-year leases – the first, of 1,000 sq ft, to photography supplier Roskerr and the second 1,750 sq ft unit to Coffee Logistics.
Asking rentals of between £5 and £7 per sq ft were achieved on both the units. The landlord is Tustin Developments.
Meanwhile, Nobilia GB, the world’s largest manufacturer of kitchens, has taken a 10,000 sq ft retail showroom at Capitol Trade Park, Walton-le-Dale. Quoting rents are £6.50 per sq ft.
