The council is selling off Chester Retail Park saying a new business park will provide a ‘more certain’ income stream.
Cheshire West and Chester Council ’s decision to pull out of retail could send a negative signal as the authority attempts to attract external investment for the £300m Northgate Development city centre regeneration scheme.
That project includes a 100,000 sq ft House of Fraser department store plus a range of 50 new shops and major stores as well as about 15 new cafés and restaurants.
But Cllr David Armstrong (Lab, Winsford ), cabinet member for legal and finance, said the sale of the freehold interest at Chester Retail Park – where Toys R Us and Maplin are about to close down – was simply ‘a good deal’.
He told the overview and scrutiny meeting on Tuesday night: “We wouldn’t have done it unless it was a good deal. That would be a foolish thing to do.”
Cllr Armstrong was ‘perplexed’ why the matter had been ‘called in’ by the Tory opposition, suggesting it had been dealt with in the same way as ‘eight or nine other decisions’ in the council’s property reinvestment programme.
And the meeting learned the council owned more than 650 property interests, worth £100m, which yielded £5.8m per year in rent.
Cllr Armstrong reassured members CWaC would rake in more cash by reinvesting proceeds from the Chester Retail Park sell-off into a business park based at the former waste depot in nearby Bumpers Lane.
Asked by committee member Cllr Hugo Deynem (Con, Tarvin and Kelsall ) what long term financial forecasts had been carried out, Lisa Harris, director of places strategy, responded: “The reinvestment allows us an equally long term lease and the equivalent income stream which is more certain at this moment in time.”
In response to a follow-up query, she added: “I wouldn’t say there was a risk profile, it’s a balance of where the market is at the moment and where we foresee the market going and also from the independent advice that we got in relation to where the lease reviews would be in future and what the likely income impacts would be on the Sealand Road Retail Park.”
Tory opposition leader Cllr Lynn Riley (Con, Frodsham ) voiced concerns her party had not been properly informed about the decision while her Conservative colleagues quizzed Cllr Armstrong on the possible impact the sale could have on the Northgate Development if control was lost over this rival retail site.
Cllr Armstrong apologised because Cllr Neil Sullivan , shadow cabinet member for finance, should have been notified while officers told the committee the matter had been wrongly designated a key decision when it was simply part of CWaC’s ongoing property reinvestment programme (PRP).
The committee agreed to review the PRP policy to ensure members were briefed appropriately in future and to scrutinise procedural checks in relation to key decisions in the forward plan.
Financial details of the Chester Retail Park deal were then discussed in private.
