Hammerson and Morley Property Fund are staging a public exhibition of their £250m proposals for an extension to the Queensgate Centre in the North Westgate area of Peterborough.
Proposals for the scheme, which comprise shopping, leisure and residential, include
· A 135,000 sq ft department store on the site of the Perkins car park
· A new bus interchange
· A public square around Westgate Church
· A glass-covered shopping street linking the Queensgate Centre to Westgate Square
· A cinema and about 100 flats.
There will be new car parking and improvements to the Queensgate Centre, which opened in 1982 and is owned by Morley.
A planning application will be submitted in early 2005 and construction is expected to take up to six years.
For the scheme to happen, the pair will need to buy, or the council will need to CPO, land owned by Bristol developer Hawksworth which has been promoting a rival scheme.
The North Westgate scheme is one of 10 major developments identified in Peterborough council’s city centre framework, which it hopes will attract £750m investment over the next 20 years.
The framework also includes proposals for the South Bank of the River Nene, the Station Quarter, the East Embankment area and a new Civic Suite development at Northminster, plus 2,500 new homes for 6,000 people.
Dr John Bridge, former chairman of regional development agency One North East, has been appointed to establish an Urban Regeneration Company (URC).
The public sector partners in the project will meet core costs of the URC, but the organisation will be led by the private sector and will be responsible for ensuring delivery of the projects in the framework.
For more information visit www.northwestgate.com
References: EGi News 29/09/04
