By Senior councillors approve plans to buy Freshney Place
A special cabinet meeting was held at Grimsby Town Hall last night to discuss North East Lincolnshire Council’s plans to buy Freshney Place shopping centre.
The centre went into receivership earlier this year but the council hopes to protect the 1,700 jobs by buying the shopping mall in a £20 million deal.
Although the exact cost has not yet been determined, the finer details will be decided upon at a full council meeting will all 42 members later this month.
The council confirmed that a bid on the shopping centre has been placed as the deadline for bids ended on Tuesday, but added that plans will no go ahead until it has full council approval.
If approved by Full Council, the national Future High Streets Fund (FHSF) will be used to buy Freshney Place.
Over £17million was secured from the government in the biggest grant in the council’s 25 year history to renovate the western end of the centre.
Should the council buy the shopping centre they would then bid for replacement money to continue the FHSF work at the western end of Freshney Place, which would see a new multi-screen cinema installed.
Both Cleethorpes and Grimsby can bid for £20million from central government while a further £20million is being sought to create a transport hub to include land at Garden Street and refurbishment of the multi-storey car park at Abbey Walk.
Councillor Philip Jackson, Leader of the Council, said: “It is vital that we take this course of action to make sure we can continue to deliver our transformation of the urban heart of Grimsby. If we don’t buy the centre, it could be bought by someone who is unwilling to invest and the decline of the heart of our town centre would be devastating.”
He added: “Ensuring it retains a competitive retail and service offer is key to safeguarding up to 1,700 jobs within Freshney Place and Top Town Market. If this is approved, subject to due diligence, we would be looking to appoint external asset managers with significant experience to run the centre on a day-to-day basis with the council taking an ‘arms-length’ approach.
“To enable this regeneration to continue, Freshney Place, a huge space in our town centre, must have a stable future. If this becomes Council-owned, this would mean that we could take Freshney Place into account when we’re looking at the transformation of the whole of our town centre, potentially bringing in different offers, using the centre in different and more modern ways to reduce its current over-reliance on retail.”
