It has taken 10 months, four developers, a Tory election win and a last-minute switch of developer, but Altrincham’s facelift finally appears to be back on track. Trafford council signed heads of terms with preferred developer Nikal/David McLean last month, entering into a six-month period with the joint venture to negotiate a development agreement.
This will be no nip and tuck treatment for Altrincham town centre. Named Station Location, the 5-acre site next to the town’s transport interchange will be overhauled, making way for 200,000 sq ft of retail, 90,000 sq ft of leisure, a hotel, apartments and an ice rink, replacing the one closed in 2002.
Because of the project’s size, plans will have to go to the ODPM, but the council hopesto sign a final development agreement thisautumn. Construction could be under way by late 2006. Building work will take two years, with the jv opting to develop in a single phase.
Altrincham residents will probably sigh and roll their eyes, believing they have heard it all before. After all, Leeds-based Sterling-St James was given control of the site in June last year when it was selected as preferred developer by the then Labour-controlled Trafford council. But, just days later, Labour was out. The incoming Tory administration called in the Sterling-St James verdict, stating that such a big decision should never have been made so close to an election.
Controversy over the way the development was handed to Nikal has since dogged the project. Nikal has opted not becomeinvolved in the wrangling, claiming its scheme, designed by Ian Simpson Architects, has been through full commercial viability tests. But Sterling-St James, a joint venture between Sterling Capital and St James Securities, is keener to talk.
Simon Clarke, development director at Sterling Capital, says the company is disappointed by the new administration’s decision, and insists its plans were completely compliant with the council’s brief.
“Our scheme’s proposals came out top in each and every criterion of the development brief, with an emphasis on deliverability,” he argues. “The council has been seduced by visuals, such as the glass tower, and the extreme sports. If they’d told us they’d like extreme sports, there was plenty of scope in our scheme to introduce that, but such an element won’t drive viability.”
Clarke believes there is still a window of opportunity when Trafford’s six-month exclusivity agreement with Nikal ends. “They’ve left the door open,” he says. “I hope they have a critical overview and assessment of whether the scheme is deliverable, and don’t get sucked into the process. I hope the council is brave enough and strong enough to call it in rather than leave Altrincham with a white elephant that cannot be delivered.”
But Drivers Jonas, adviser to Trafford council, suggests Nikal is now firmly in the driving seat. The agent’s Tim Claxton says: “The council would not be wasting its time andI wouldn’t be wasting six months of my life if I didn’t think there was a good chance of Nikal succeeding.”
The reaction to Nikal’s scheme among Manchester’s property industry has been largely positive. “Altrincham hasn’t evolved to meet modern retailers’ needs,” says Stuart Burdon Bailey, director at Jones Lang LaSalle. “If you analyse the population and the potential spend, the town is woefully underperforming.”
According to data from consumer analyst CACI, the town’s socio-economic profile is a developer’s dream. It has four times the UK’s average number of prosperous professionals, double the number of affluent greys and nearly twice the number of wealthy executives. Excluding Manchester city centre, around 180,000 people live within 20 minutes’ travel time, including an enviable mix of the rich and famous. And it has motorway links, a train network and a tram interchange.
Cars drive down ranking
But that infrastructure has recently served to take shoppers out of Altrincham. Its ranking has slipped to 123 in the country as the town’s residents opt for a Saturday shopping trip to the nearby Trafford Centre or the city centre.
Nick Payne, director of Nikal and a resident of Altrincham, hopes to change this by investing £100m. “Altrincham has a very limited brand offering. There’s no Selfridges, no Harvey Nicks and nowhere to buy Prada. We want to turn it around,” he says.
Nikal’s scheme will be anchored by a concept called Venture Extreme, which will have a climbing wall, ice wall, “surf wave” and a caving area. John Airey, retail director at Dunlop Heywood Lorenz and agent on the scheme, describes it as similar to X-scape, “but more defined. They are a shopping centre that uses snow to drag people in, whereas we are the other way around.”
Nikal will have a job on its hands to increase rents in Altrincham, according to Warwick Smither of Cheetham & Mortimer. “Rents got inflated a few years ago to around £90 per sq ft zone A,” he says. “It’s relatively static in the town. There are more voids than anything else, and people are moving out, so there is a question over how much they can be pushed on. It’s definitely not a fast money maker.”
Payne is aware of this, and is willing to compromise in the short term. He will look at cheaper deals to get stores in sooner, but could hold out for longer leases. “I’ve done that before when we put the Comedy Store in Deansgate Locks, at £9 per sq ft. Everyone thought it was insane but it set the tone of occupiers.” And, long term, Payne is very ambitious, hoping to double zone As to the £200 per sq ft level.
Planning permission
Nikal’s scheme will face competition for retailers from Park Lane Estates’ Stamford shopping centre, which is being redeveloped on the other side of the train tracks. Planning permission for a £30m overhaul of the 1970s centre was submitted in September last year. If granted, it would see part of the centre demolished to make way for 84,000 sq ft of retail space. This is scheduled to open in 2006 — a full two years before Station Location.
Payne is not worried. “Park Lane is aiming at high street fashion, we are not. We are talking to the Habitats, John Lewis’s and Fired Earths of this world.”
So should local residents be rolling their eyes? Payne does not think so. “I don’t think the council wanted a shopping centre.” Then he adds with a smile: “They wanted a local developer, local people who would feel they were letting the Altrincham people down if they didn’t deliver. It’s a big gamble for me, and if this doesn’t work then we’ll have to find somewhere else to live.”
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● 200,000 sq ft of retail ● 90,000 sq ft of leisure ● 3-star hotel with 85 rooms ● 960-space car park ● 50 apartments ● Venture Extreme as an anchor, including climbing wall, ice wall, surf wave and a caving area |
