Plan for former shopping centre frame scrapped

Plans to keep much of Nottingham's old Broadmarsh Centre frame as part of its regeneration have been scrapped.

The city council hoped to use the former shopping centre's external frame to offer "innovative" new spaces as part of a wider redevelopment of the Broad Marsh area.

However, the authority said potential developers were "hesitant" to retain the structure due to construction risks because of its age.

Council leader Neghat Khan said she hoped the site, which aims to offer new homes plus commercial and leisure outlets, would be fully redeveloped by 2027.

The derelict building was taken over by Nottingham City Council in 2020 after previous owner intu went into administration.

Sir Tim Smit, of the Eden Project, and urban designer Thomas Heatherwick created a new vision following a public consultation, which gained more than 3,000 responses.

Heatherwick's original vision was to keep much of the shopping centre's old frame, from where the newly-created Green Heart site now stands, to Middle Hill.

Former council leader, Jon Collins, previously described the vision as "commercially undeliverable", saying: "That concrete and steel frame was put up 50 to 60 years ago in the 1960s.

"Nobody is going to take on the risk of taking on that frame."

In May, the council unveiled its new masterplan for the site, which revealed a smaller section of the frame would be retained instead.

Khan told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the vision was altered following concerns from potential developers.

"Initially in the vision it was about keeping it all, but we were looking at developers and the interest around that and there are a lot of risks to it, because it is a very old frame," she said.

"Hopefully by the end of the financial year we will have some good news about who is taking on that site. We will have housing on there, leisure, business, office space, there might be some student accommodation."

Demolition work is due to start on the rest of the site after the East Midlands Combined County Authority agreed to give the council up to £3.4m on Monday.

East Midlands mayor Claire Ward added the funding would help kick-start momentum to demolish a majority of the remaining frame, having described it as an "eyesore".

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