Town centre improvements take shape

Rochdale town centre

Rochdale Borough Council has placed an official notice to attract developers for its £200 million town centre redevelopment proposals.

The brief contains a plan that will mean that the winning developer will pay £50,000 to each of the two other shortlisted developers – as a contribution towards their tendering costs. This incentive has been built into the process following feedback and suggestions from interested developers at an open day about the opportunity.

Councillor Alan Taylor, Leader of the Council and Chair of Rochdale Town Centre Committee said: “We appreciate that it’s a tough economic climate for developers.

"The competitive dialogue process needed for a development area of this size does require a large investment for the developers that make it through to the shortlist.

"There was a lot of interest from developers at the open day and we had feedback that assistance from the winning company to share some of those costs would be welcomed.”

The winning developer will benefit from around nine hectares of council owned land in the town centre for retail, leisure, public realm and car parking with potential for offices and homes. The brief also encourages developers to show proposals for a department store along with a food-store as anchor tenants.

The brief has been developed in consultation with the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency, Rochdale Development Agency and commercial property consultants DTZ.

John Hudson, Chief Executive of Rochdale Development Agency said: “Market research has shown that by the time we will have the redevelopment site cleared in 2012, we will be in a prime position to attract retailers to the town centre.

"It will be a great year for the borough with the arrival of Metrolink and a new £60 million council headquarters along with library, customer services and office space.”

Following public consultation, a final decision is expected to be made by councillors in summer 2010. In the meantime, work is continuing to get the town centre ready for the new retail developments with a programme of acquisitions pressing ahead.

Finance has been secured for a £60 million municipal riverside development which will provide 300,000 sq ft of office accommodation for 2,600 council, NHS and private sector staff along with a new town centre library, training and conference facilities by the end of 2011.

Work on building the new Rochdale 6th Form College is underway. Work is also progressing on a programme of acquisitions to enable building adjacent to the new transport interchange site on Smith Street.

Demolition of the existing council offices (known as the black box) and existing bus station will enable space for the proposed town centre retail development.

The site for the new town centre transport interchange has already been cleared. Metrolink will arrive into Rochdale in 2012 and the new interchange will be designed to accommodate its extension into the town centre.