Final curtain falls on Summer Row
Friday 26th November 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
The £300 million Summer Row shopping dream in the Black Country was today all but dead – as developers revealed they were suing the Irish investors who backed out and caused the plans to collapse.
The showpiece complex in Wolverhampton due to be anchored by Debenhams and Marks & Spencer has been in crisis since a funding deal with a consortium of three Northern Irish businessmen collapsed in December 2008. Developer Multi has given itself until Tuesday before it admits defeat.
It revealed today it was pursuing legal action against the initial investors.
The consortium was made up of two major backers, Lagan Group and Bangor-based MAR Properties, along with housebuilding firm Windsor.
Lagan, involved in the manufacture and supply of construction materials, and MAR, which owns the Wolverhampton Airport site in Halfpenny Green, have since worked together on plans for a Sainsbury’s store in Belfast.
Multi managing director Paul Sargent today said legal action was launched after the deal “fell away” during the recession in 2008.
“We started legal action straight away and that is still ongoing,” he added.
Compulsory purchase orders on 200 businesses that will make way for the 600,000 sq ft development in Snow Hill run out in February next year.
It recently emerged businesses could be bought by Wolverhampton City Council and then rented back to traders. The council may take up a loan to meet the cost of buying the buildings and would act as landlord until a developer is found.
That would give the council complete control of the development area and enable it to act quickly if and when an investor is found, without the need to start the compulsory purchase process again.
Bosses hope the shopping complex, which would be bordered by Cleveland Street, Snow Hill and Temple Street, would rival Merry Hill and Birmingham’s Bullring. Last month Multi revealed the centre would have to be scaled down 20 per cent in an attempt to secure an investor.
Lagan and MAR were today unavailable for comment.
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Well all i say is great news.
Maybe now the council will invest in the perfectly good shopping area we have now and new retailers will commit to new shops leases knowing that there will be no changes to the retail landscape.
Wton council should also use the £20m they were reportedly going to use to kickstart this project in redeveloping the derelict buildings in town into say residential to cut their reported long housing list.
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Lol number 1
you think if they spent 20m on the inside people will still come to w-ton.
You only need to look around to see the shops with no roofs on them and the rubbish dumped in the unused shops.
All I can say is this is the end of w-ton now
It will just get worse and worse and there will be 100 of more empty shops that become empty because of the lack of shoppers.
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I disagree entirely. The only way forward is to provide something new, something different. And the Summer Row with a cinema and other stores would be ideal!
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The things that’s been keeping this countries head above water in this year been the building trade & the previous goverments investment in infastructure. Now we see from the above story, building as to rely on Mr Cameron’s private sector & I think it’s clear to see, from the above report, where that sort of policy will take us
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I think you will find that this collapsed because of the recession, caused in no small part by the previous government.
This was doomed the moment the previous boom bubble, burst.
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This project has been in the air for far too long and I think its time to stop trying to develop it as they intend to with all these big name shops, you can go to Birmingham or Merry Hill for that. Why don’t the council get in touch with a company like McArther Glenn who own Cheshire Oaks which has the clearance shops? Something like that would be brilliant for the west midlands, it is always packed no matter what time of year you go and people travel for miles to go there.
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I like the sound of that I love a good bargain! I didn’t even know Cheshire Oaks was a clearance centre…looks like its worth a trip!
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Also, Wolverhampton would have to have free parking to rival Merryhill, otherwise people will just keep going to Merryhill as there are currently no plans to introduce parking charges at Merryhill.
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Unfortunately as Wolverhampton is a city it has to charge for parking. Anywhere that has Town status or greater – which MerryHill doesn’t – HAS to charge for parking.
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Since when have Town or City Councils been obliged by law to charge for parking?
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3 – the idea is to stop people going to Brum and Merry hill and come to wolverhampton to spend their money.
I do like your second idea, its put Ellsmeer Port on the map!
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I understand that that’s the case about stopping people going to B-ham or Merry Hill but at the end of the day even if these big name shops do open they will more than likely be smaller versions than the ones in said areas and won’t have the choice and stock levels so people will still go away. A Cheshire Oaks type place would probably bring more people from the surrounding areas to us than would go from us to them!
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Unless they open until late in the evening improve traffic conditions and provide free parking there isn’t any point. People go to Merry hill because its open until 10 and free parking.
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A Designer Outlet Village like McArthur Glen would need to be an out of town developement… Otherwise it will kill of shops which are already struggling in town IMO..
That said it would be a great addition to the Midlands economy if we were to get a Designer Outlet Village in right location
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The Council had the opportunity for a clearance outlet at the Springfield Brewery Site but rejected it. Presumably too down market for their posh and expensive vision for the town. I agree with the first comment. Let’s concentrate on improving what we already have.
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We don’t need an outlet village it would cripple married men!! lol
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What a shame Wolverhampton, home of some of the biggest players in the construction industry, is held to ransom by “out of town” developers.
There is, already, a Marks and Spencer in Wton. After it was recently redeveloped they ended up with a smaller shopping area and a reduction in accessibility (closing the Market Street entrances). If M & S want to have a presence they can easily expand on their existing site.
Debenhams would be a worthwhile addition to Wton. What a shame one floor of Woolworth’s was handed over to Boots… The largest Woolworth’s in Europe would be an ample home for a major department store. Then again… the former coop building is serving no useful purpose and if Debenhams are the draw theses developers anticipated then perhaps they could locate there and bring Lichfield Street back to life.
A large multi storey car park with a megaplex cinema and a new theatre capable of hosting major names (an rivalling that place in Warwickshire outside an airport) would be the best use of the “New Summer Row” site.
At a fraction of the cost this would bring business to the City. The Mander and Wulfrun Centres might also be tempted to get their acts in order.
But then…. all this is just plain simple commons sense and Wolverhampton is the land of the NIMBYs. If there is an awkward way to obstruct anything then here is where it will happen… hence the long history of litigation beginning with the railways and water…..
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All this problem as come about because of the wulfrun centre.They put there complaint in on the last day and this held it up by many months and then the recession hit us.
Well i hope they suffer for been so greedy.
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great news, now let hope they concentrate on the centre we have got and do something with all the empty units, even if it means refurb work.
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Why not turn the site over to Tesco? Sainsbury’s can develop the Raglan Street site and Tesco can provide some much needed additional parking in the town centre. Let’s face it. For the forseeable future we’re not going to compete with Birmingham or Merry Hill so we need to make the best use of what we have got.
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i knew this was goin to happen,how much will the council pay for the shops bet it wont be market value,the traders are in a catch 22 position,on the way to cheshire oaks u can pop into the trafford centre and if ur in cheshire oaks u can go shopping in sainsburys as well
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Iv’e been to Cheshire Oaks and thought it was bloomin’ expensive. I suppose if you regularly buy designer clothes, you may get a bargain. I don’t so for people like me, there would be little point.
The summer row project is never going to happen, and if it did, would almost certainly be a white elephant.
Clean up the town and tidy eyesores, that’s more needed. Make better use of the shops and markets that we already have. Make Wolverhampton somewhere its a pleasure to spend time in.
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its far cheaper to kill a city than to develop it
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Well I suppose the legal profession will make a fortune out of this. nobody looses except us.
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its also in this edition of the newspaper that walsall are offering free parking on their council run car parks over the xmas period-the parking casts are much lower there anyway!!
Hmmmm i know where im shopping this xmas thanks!
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They should do with Dudley street as they did with the Wulfrun centre – cover it and side streets. That would create a large central shopping centre, combining it with Wulfrun and Mander, maybe even have a covered enclosed walkway leading to St Georges metro stop essentially providing a station in the shopping centre at a fraction of the cost.
Sacrifice areas such as Summer Row to become much needed car parking space, and then development space for a cinema etc, moving the shops that were there into the aforementioned shopping area.
Maybe I’m naive, but if I had the £300mil they were planning for summer row or whatever it was that’s what I’d do with it.
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There were alot of things wrong with this from the start, the money was never secure and the council looked back to the same place for investment which was wrong.
The wrong developer was chosen from the start and the design wasn’t even all weather. Maybe the council should have looked at a retail developer like Westfield who own Merry Hill to take on this project, or the owner of the Bullring.
The reason why people dont want to invest in Wolverhampton is, the rates are too high and the stores are too small!
This development should have been an extension to the Mander Centre, but more spacious and larger stores.
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As one of the 200 business affected by the cpo it would be nice to hear something definate from the council and or multi, rather than all this spin and hearsay!! the last meeting we had was july 2009, I don’t feel that I’m being kept well informed by the powers that be. Thanks to the express and star anyway for some info.
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Wolverhampton is a poor town dying on its feet. I was lucky enough to make use of my education so I could escape, but every time I return I see more desolation, poverty and neglect. There really is no hope for this town (its not a city by any definition or any stretch of the imagination). I fear that with the dearth of ability, imagination, skills, knowledge, experience and intelligence within the town council then the lights will be turned out very, very soon.
RIP Wolverhampton, you won’t be missed.
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