USS has withdrawn from an arrangement to fund Shearer Property Group’s Grand Arcade shopping project in Cambridge.
Robert Walden, fund surveyor at USS, said he had not been able to agree revised terms with Guy Shearer’s company after Shearer expanded the original design from a single-level scheme to a two-level development. Under the agreement, USS was to take all the development risk but grant Shearer’s company a small equity stake in the completed scheme.
But Walden added: “We remain convinced of the merits of the project and have no doubt that it deserves the continued support of Cambridge city council.”
Adam Markwell, Shearer’s co-director, said: “It was a ground-level scheme and now it has an extra level, adding in the region of 2,787m2 (30,000 sq ft). USS’s concern was that that had greater risk attached. We didn’t agree.”
Markwell added that the space would link up with the new 23,225m2 (250,000 sq ft) John Lewis store anchoring the scheme, and would boost Grand Arcade’s value from £100m to £150m.
Markwell claimed that an alternative partner had already signed a provisional agreement to finance the scheme.
