Clean-up job
Estates Gazette
15/06/2002
With some seriously big-name retailers looking at space-strapped Liverpool, whoever wins the right to develop at Chavasse Park should cash in. But first, planners must sort out the mess. David Quinn reports
Liverpool’s agents are fed up. The cause of their woe is planning battles that are delaying retail development in the city.
The city council’s ongoing tussle with Bill Davies’ Walton Group over its proposed 1.1m sq ft (102,200m2) shopping mall at Chavasse Park is increasingly seen as an embarrassing mess that is sapping the vitality of the city’s retail core.
Luckily for agents, the end of the affair may be in sight. Last month, planning inspector Richard Mordey appeared to give his blessing to Grosvenor and Henderson Global Investments’ rival city-centre retail development plan for Bluecoat Triangle, in roughly the same location.
Mordey’s report, in relation to the alteration of Liverpool’s unitary development plan, said that bringing “vacant sites and buildings back into use is infinitely preferable to a self-contained, mall-based design either in the Paradise Street/Bluecoat Triangle or at Chavasse Park”.
This statement has been interpreted by the council as an independent vote of confidence in the £800m Grosvenor-Henderson scheme, on which work could begin before the end of the year. A spokesman for Grosvenor describes the report as “very good news”.
Doubt cast on the park
The report is likely to cast further doubt on the viability of Walton Group’s proposals for Chavasse Park, although a separate judgment on this issue is not expected until later this year (see panel).
Walton Group remains bullish and is committed to going ahead with the development, despite Mordey’s comments. A spokesman for the developer says: “There’s everything to play for.”
He adds: “This has been going on for several years. The council has described each hurdle that has been thrown at us as ‘insurmountable’, but we have proved otherwise.
“This is only the report on the UDP. A separate judgment on our plans is still to come and we’re still 100% committed to the scheme.”
Whatever the eventual outcome, the ongoing delay to improvements to Liverpool’s retail core is creating intense frustration among agents. With several major retailers seeking to obtain a presence in the city centre, the slow progress in furthering retail development – caused by what agents see as pointless political wrangling – is causing headaches.
“People working in retail would like to see something happen – there’s enormous pent-up demand – but retailers don’t want to commit while we are in a state of flux,” says Peter Burke of Mason Owen.
Selfridges and Harvey Nichols are both rumoured to be considering a move into Liverpool, as are House of Fraser, Allders and Debenhams. Meanwhile, John Lewis’s George Henry Lee operation is believed to want to expand from its somewhat cramped accommodation.
“The way the city centre is laid out at the moment, there are no big box facilities, so there are some pretty big requirements that can’t be satisfied,” says Daniel Oliver of Hitchcock Wright & Partners.
Jonathan Owen of Irving Rice adds: “With the lack of certain occupiers we have, you have to wonder whether customers have no choice but to spend their money elsewhere.”
Because of these problems in Liverpool’s retail market, one contingent of the city’s agents believes that speed is of the essence. They do not care which of the two rival schemes gets the go-ahead – so long as one of them does soon. Rumours that the entire local property industry is in cahoots with the council and Grosvenor-Henderson are exaggerated.
Says Oliver: “Either of these schemes will be fantastic, and retailers won’t care who the developer is.”
Nonetheless, some local agents are nervous about what could happen if Walton Group gets control of Chavasse Park.
These agents welcome Mordey’s report and its implied backing for Grosvenor-Henderson’s scheme. This is because they privately believe that the fate of another Liverpool site owned by Walton Group provides an indication of what might happen should Chavasse Park fall into its hands.
In 1996, Walton Group launched plans for a shopping centre at the former post office site on Whitechapel. The following year, Walton’s Davies told EG that the site would become a 300,000 sq ft (27,870m2) retail and leisure scheme anchored by two department stores and renamed Stanley Street Store. He claimed that a multiplex cinema operator had been signed up.
Today, the site – now known as Met Quarter – remains an eyesore, steel framework having been erected but with no visible construction work having taken place for some time.
This track record is the main reason why sections of the property fraternity are worried about Walton Group’s Chavasse Park proposals, despite the company’s recruitment in 2000 of Capital Shopping Centres as development consultant. Concerned agents feel that a development on this site could be easily let and are puzzled by the slow progress.
A Walton Group spokesman says that development of the Met Quarter became possible only in the past two years, after the company secured the frontage onto Whitechapel. He adds that the Met Quarter is being redesigned to make it more attractive to occupiers and that interest has been expressed in more than 25% of the scheme.
Agents remain unconvinced. One asks: “If Davies gets hold of Chavasse Park, will he actually develop it?”
Nigel Bennett, who runs Liverpool-based retail consulting firm Bennett, puts it more diplomatically. He says: “Walton Group has the intention, ability and resources to develop Chavasse Park, subject to statutory consents.
“However, at some point in the short- to medium-term, there may possibly be some commercial advantage to Walton Group in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement with either Liverpool city council or Grosvenor-Henderson to mothball its plans for the development.”
Walton Group rejects this suggestion, saying emphatically that it will develop. “Delivery is not a problem,” says the company spokesman. “We have Capital Shopping Centres on board and they make things happen.”
Davies does battle
Many in Liverpool do not begrudge Davies his right to persist in battling with the council over Chavasse Park. After all, he secured the option to develop there fair and square. “He’s a good businessman,” says one agent. “If you had the council by the balls, you’d do the same.”
Nevertheless, most agents in the city are in favour of the rival Grosvenor-Henderson scheme. James Kersh of Kersh Commercial, for example, says: “Grosvenor-Henderson have an international track record. They would move in with confidence and would attract strong tenants.”
Mason Owen’s Burke agrees. “I prefer Grosvenor-Henderson’s scheme because it is more concentrated around the existing retail pitch. It bolts on, rather than creating something elsewhere,” he says.
Retailers also favour Grosvenor-Henderson. David Wade-Smith, whose family owns the Wade Smith clothing empire, says: “Grosvenor’s track record at building things is considerably better than Walton Group’s.”
As well as the announcement by the planning inspector last month, other factors appear to be stacking up against Walton Group.
The developer could be cast against the rocks of the planning system – particularly PPG 6 – or may be caught out by one of the rules of the option agreement originally agreed with the council. One of these specifies that Walton Group must have tenant support for two-thirds of the retail element by this summer, and no retailers have yet been confirmed.
Even so, Walton Group has the option of judicial review should the next round of the planning battle go against it – which means that the city’s retail future is still, for the moment, unclear.
Chavasse Park
Walton Group still in control
In 1996, Walton Group purchased an option to develop on the 6-acre (2.4ha) Chavasse Park site.
Three years later, a change of council administration from Labour to Liberal Democrat resulted in the council attempting to buy Walton out of its option. It succeeded in the High Court but then suffered defeat on appeal.
In 2000, urban regeneration company Liverpool Vision backed Grosvenor-Henderson’s rival Bluecoat Triangle retail scheme on a site surrounding Chavasse Park. Undeterred, Walton Group submitted a planning application for a 1.1m sq ft (102,200m2) glass-covered mall, designed by 94-year-old US architect Philip Johnson.
The council went back to the High Court to ask it to interpret the development option in its favour. Again, it failed.
Meanwhile, Capital Shopping Centres – now owned by Liberty – became Walton Group’s development consultant on Chavasse Park.
In July 2001, the High Court told Liverpool city council that it could not stop Walton Group purchasing the Chavasse Park site for £15m and, by September, the council was forced to accept a £750,000 deposit from the developer.
The planning inquiry into Walton Group’s scheme – and into Liverpool city council’s proposals to change the city’s unitary development plan to accommodate Grosvenor-Henderson – began in November. In May this year, judgment on the UDP appeared to back Grosvenor-Henderson, throwing doubt on the future of Walton Group’s proposals.
Tags: liverpool, retail
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