Bradford Council has bought Kirkgate Shopping Centre for £15.5m, as part of plans for 1,000 new homes in the city centre.
Anchor tenant Primark will relocate from the mall to the nearby Broadway shopping centre, where it will open a 55,000 sq ft shop at a former Debenhams store. The council said it has committed to work with all remaining occupiers to relocate them to other parts of the city centre.
The City Village scheme will stretch across 13 acres. The council said that unlocking the Kirkgate sites will enable it to double the size of the scheme, which originally proposed 500 homes. The site includes a second precinct, the Oastler Shopping Centre, which will close when the city’s flagship Darley Street Market opens in 2023.
Bradford Council said it now seeks to secure a private developer to take the scheme through to fruition, with the support of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Homes England.
The development will sit alongside a £22m, 4,000-seat live entertainment complex and Muse Developments’ £35m One City Park office scheme. Both are due to open next year.
As part of the wider transformation of the city centre, major routes such as Hall Ings, Market Street and the Jacobs Well area will be pedestrianised, and a £17.5m cycle route will be created on Thornton Road.
The 1970s Kirkgate Shopping Centre was previously owned by Dublin-based Crownway Investments. The council said it was once described as the city’s “space-age shopping centre”, but it has “aged rapidly” since, with the number of shops dwindling.
Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council, said: “Good local authorities up and down the country are using their assets and resources to shape their local economy to make them vibrant and sustainable well into the future. This is what we’re doing here in Bradford in taking on this major anchor site.”
Alex Ross-Shaw, the council’s portfolio holder for regeneration and planning, said: “With the Kirkgate and Oastler shopping centres as two major redevelopment sites in the same area, it’s a huge opportunity to reshape the city centre with sustainable and quality new housing, public spaces and business developments.”
Bradford was named as the UK’s 2025 city of culture earlier this year.
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