Invesco is the new neighbour in Peterborough. The firm officially collected the keys of the city centre’s Queensgate shopping centre last month, having bought it from Hammerson and Aviva for £202m.
Naturally, there is curiosity about the new face but in particular because there have been plans to extend the shopping centre on and off for more than a decade (see timeline below). Everyone liked Hammerson/Aviva but a fresh face might be just what is needed.
“I think Peterborough has got an opportunity and a second chance because nothing really has happened since Queensgate opened,” says Paul Farrow, head of Savill’s Peterborough office.
“Peterborough is under-shopped for the size of the city,” adds Julian Welch of Barker Storey Matthews. “A global investor wouldn’t have the faith to invest £200m-plus in the city if they didn’t see potential,” he adds. And he is right. Invesco has a plan but then so does small, Bristol-based developer Hawksworth Securities, which has been quietly buying up sites in North Westgate, the area earmarked for the extension for a 497,000 sq ft leisure-led scheme (see panel).
Invesco managing director Simon Redman says his firm bought Queensgate as part of a broader retail strategy to target shopping centres that are dominant in their markets and can be “moved on to the next chapter”. It has bought similarly in Maastrict and Poland.
It is early days, the boxes are still being unpacked, but Redman says Invesco has ideas. “There have been quite big plans and it is attractive to unlock some of the things that have been on hold,” he says.
Music to Peterborough agents ears no doubt; however, that is longer term. “We typically put in place a five-year business plan and want to make a material impact in a relatively short space of time,” he says. “We have a more immediate horizon to move the centre on more quickly.
“Grand plans are great and you should never exclude them but it’s not central to our plans.”
So the immediate focus is refurbishment and reconfiguration. Waitrose is expected to move out of the centre into a new purpose-built store near the station in the next year or so, which will free up a sizeable unit for Invesco to play with.
The strategy, however, does raise questions about how the longer-term ambitions for an extension might play out. There is really only room for one big scheme and if Hawksworth’s plans get approved, and it gets funding, then it will be in a strong position. The council has indicated that it would use CPO powers if it became necessary.
Invesco could, in theory, build something smaller on the car park and bus station it owns between the shopping centre and station. Or would it be content with a spruce-up of the existing centre?
“It would probably be prudent for them to explore working together. There are synergies and benefits to all interested parties in working together,” says Martin Blackwell of Blackwell Consulting.
And it is something on the mind of Peter Breach, chairman and chief executive of Hawksworth: “Working together and pooling resources would make sense and we have always been happy to work with the owners of Queensgate.”
The key will be the council. A criticism often levelled by locals is that the local authority put all its eggs in Hammerson’s basket to the detriment of any other plans and ended up with nothing. It is never quite a simple as that, particularly with plans on this scale.
Leader of the council Marco Cereste says it is still keen to see North Westgate redeveloped: “If we work together then we have a lot more chance of delivering something different than if we were fighting each other,” he says. “To be fair to everybody, there were some fantastic proposals brought forward to extend North Westgate but the bottom fell out of the market.”
He is impressed by the proposals that Hawksworth is bringing forward and describes them as “very deliverable and very achievable”. Cereste doesn’t see it as a competition – his concern is that something finally happens. “If we are not careful we will miss the train,” he says.
Hawksworth Securities Westgate plans
Bristol-headquartered Hawksworth Securities is the biggest landowner on the North Westgate site, having assembled three of the eight acres, according to Peter Breach, the company’s chairman and chief executive.
There are 31 ownerships in total and the entire site would be required to fulfil the developers’ plans for a 497,000 sq ft scheme comprising leisure, retail, residential, hotel and anchored by an eight-screen cinema.
Hawksworth tried to develop on North Westgate before and submitted plans back in 2003 which came to nothing. Undeterred its new scheme has a high-profile architect attached in the form of Chapman Taylor and Breach says it wants to submit planning in the autumn.
“We will go to the market for funding when we have planning under our belt,” he says.
