Chester’s Northgate Development on hold yet again

Feb 24 2011 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

IT IS now 10 years since news emerged about plans for the regeneration of Chester city centre but not one brick has yet been laid.

Cheshire West and Chester Council has now revealed the timetable for the long-delayed Northgate Development has slipped again.

Last October the council said a revised planning application was expected this autumn but this is now due early in 2012.

Troubleshooters the Urban Land Institute, who analysed Chester Plc, told the city before Christmas there was an urgency to build the stalled scheme or move on.

Now the council says a report to go before its executive in June will draw up financial and legal guidelines as the basis on which to proceed on a new contract with developers ING Real Estate.

A council spokesman said: “You have to understand the financial climate in which we are operating. It’s the most difficult climate in half a century and the very fact this is still on course is amazing when you consider schemes have been dropped left, right and centre in the rest of the country.”

The vision is based on 580,000 sq ft of retail space and is likely to include department stores, quality shops, restaurants, cafés, bars and other leisure facilities.

A comprehensive masterplan will be drawn up – taking account of the results of a consultation and the ULI report – leading to a full planning application.

Fears were raised over the future of the retail scheme after the ING sold off the majority of its real estate investment management business to US property giant CBRE for $940m. But the council insists ING Real Estate Development, a branch of the company that forms the other half of Northgate Partnership, is unaffected.