Our initial plans include creating:
Thornfield Properties Plc has been selected as the preferred developer and we are working with them and our partners such as English Partnerships, One NorthEast and Sunderland City Council to make our overall vision come to life.
Our inspiration has been projects like Birmingham 's Brindley Place and Bull Ring developments and we are confident we can create that calibre of scheme in Sunderland.
We expect Holmeside’s location, within the heart of the City and adjacent to the Transport Interchange, Winter Gardens and Mowbray Park, to be a major attraction to potential investors. This is important because private investors will have to fund the development so we need to show them exactly what Sunderland has to offer.
The site is located within the defined principal shopping, leisure and commercial area of the City Centre. The redevelopment of such a large site with modern units within the prime retail pitch of the city represents a unique opportunity for a developer.
The site has an enormous retail catchment of some 610,000 people but many currently shop elsewhere meaning Sunderland does not benefit from its own spending power.
Research has clearly shown us the planned development could help retain a large part of the City's £1.4billion-worth of spending power in the City.
Although there is a great opportunity for growth, there is currently a lack of retail floor space and modern unit within the City Centre. The Holmeside plan will address this to ensure new retailers can establish themselves in Sunderland.
A transformed Holmeside will broaden Sunderland 's range of shopping facilities and ensure the City not only retains its own shoppers but also attracts those from outside the City. It will provide an exhilarating new development that will move the City into the 21 st Century with innovative and exciting architecture set within the existing townscape.
This development will complement and enhance the City’s existing retail offer and the new leisure and residential units will ensure it builds upon the vibrant night-time economy.
Sunderland arc is currently working with Thornfield Properties Plc on a detailed planning application for Holmeside. Development is expected to begin in 2010 once detailed planning permission has been obtained and land assembly completed.
We have been in negotiation with the owners of various interests over the past two and a half years. At present approximately 75 per cent of the freehold site area has been secured by the arc.
Negotiations are continuing with other land owners and tenants and we are trying to secure agreements as soon as is practicable. The possible use of compulsory purchase powers to acquire remaining interests and complete assembly of the whole site cannot be ruled out. If a CPO is required that process is likely to take around 18 months.
The development of City Centre sites is a complex exercise which involves a number of technical and legal issues being addressed.
We do of course wish to bring about this new retail offer for the city as soon as possible. If we waited until the entire site assembly process was completed before seeking to appoint a development partner then it would take considerably longer to progress the scheme. By marketing the scheme to potential development partners in tandem with ongoing site assembly negotiations we should be able to get the scheme off the ground quicker.
This is quite a common approach to delivering complex regeneration projects.
It will be up to the appointed developer/consortia to evaluate whether The Point is able to fit in to their plans. The market is expected to be closed in its current form to make way for the new scheme which aims to lift the retail choice within the City Centre to include new businesses such as high quality, niche retailers.
The site is expected to be developed over three phases over a number of years, with the first phase being on the former Kwik-Save site – land currently controlled by the arc.