Stockport Council is to borrow £9m to take over the lease of Debenhams so it can control that area of the town centre.
Council chiefs say the site is ‘key’ to its vision for the area – and will mean major regeneration plans can be unveiled later this year which are expected to include a new cinema.
The move comes as bosses also approved a £182,000 loan to Stockport County in a bid to secure its future.
Council bosses said both moves are risk-free and will not cost the council in the long term.
Coun Kevin Hogg, executive member for regeneration, said buying the Debenhams lease would allow the entire area to be transformed.
A new side entrance would be created where the existing car park ramp is situated, opening up the area. He said: "If we buy the leasehold it means we have got full control of the area.
"The key to the whole of Bridgefield is that acquisition at the moment. Unless we can get that out of there, Bridgefield isn’t a goer. This will bring the plan quite a bit further forward.
"It actually won’t cost the council anything because the amount of income from the rent from Debenhams more than covers the interest on the loan."
The long lease became available after owners Ambassador Holdings went into receivership last summer.
It is understood a loan of around £9m would be required to purchase the lease.
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How many areas do they need to transform in Stockport - can't they start one and finish one first before moving on to the next. Take Grand Central - they are making it into a car park, supposed to be temporary, but you can bet they will never do anything with the site again. Why do we need another cinema in Stockport - again what's up with the one on Grand Central, once they have made the car park?
A £180,000 loan to Stockport County is risk free?? How do the council work that out when SCFC do not have one tangable assett??? Answers on a postcard please!!
Leave Debenhams alone! Debenhams might sell but they might also moveout of the town permanently and that will result in job losses. Stockport MBC are useless and who's money did they use to 'loan' Stockport Councty £182k - shouldn't they have to consult with the residents of Stockport before they do this?
Another cinema is exactly what Stockport needs, because Grand Central is bursting at the seams... uh-uh, yeah, sure... Oh, and another entrance on the M60 side is also necessary, it will open up splendid views of...er, the motorway and Staples.
Meanwhile, the Merseyway "high street" is more and more isolated from the old town centre, and St. Petersgate is dead (the "SKOne" space has been vacant for more than 5 years!).
It's funny how nobody in the town centre votes LibDem anymore; LD majorities are built on leafy suburban voters electing leafy suburban politicians who then proceed to ruin the town they don't live in.
Having read at the latest development prospectus for the town centre prepared by Driver Jonas Deloitte for the Council, no wonder external investors are shying away from the area. It is littered with garbage phrases such as:
"A wider range of retail, leisure, office and residential uses to attract a wider catchment
and socio-demographic from Stockport’s hinterland"
and
"This “undiscovered” part of the town is centred on the Market Place"
Muppets.
Actually they need to start by updating Merseyway and then work their way outwards from there. If you take the time to have a good long look at Merseyway then the council's claim that it is thriving should be worrisome to everybody. Would you trust a mechanic who wants to polish your car's bodywork to fix the engine misfiring?
Market is the easiest to fix, you need to reduce rents to lure back traders, empty stalls do not bring in income.
What a joke this council are It is clear that the residents of Stockport and the villages that are governed by this set of fools are at last waking up, as their majority reduces at each election the sooner they are elected out the better A consolation for them will be counting their expenses that they have increased over and over. The loan of any amount of money to a private company that is on the brink of bankruptcy is both foolhardy and should be investigated for its legality even more so when it lacks any assets