Plans to invest £400,000 into Altrincham ’s Grafton Centre have been approved.
Trafford council’s executive voted to invest the funds into the town centre shopping complex last night (Monday January 24) after the pandemic forced plans to redevelop the site to be paused.
The £400,000 will be funded through borrowing and aims to to breathe new life into the centre and secure its long-term future.
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Coun Nathan Evans, Conservative group leader, raised the concern of one of the shopping centre units having traces of asbestos in it and queried if the investment was going to be put towards remediation work to tackle that.
Council officers confirmed this would be covered within the £400k investment.
The council will now focus on filling the vacant units in the complex and managing its existing renters there; any proposals for a major redevelopment has been paused for now.
Trafford council bought the shopping centre and hotel in 2018 for £10.8m and brought property experts CBRE on board in 2020 to assess options for the site.
The firm carried out an appraisal of all options to help the council decide what the centre’s future will look like.
Trafford council had already begun the procurement process looking for developers to work on the site before coronavirus hit, but had to put this on hold during the pandemic.
Now, redevelopment plans for the site remain paused and the immediate plan for the building is for the council to manage existing tenants and work to re-let vacant units in the shopping centre.
The report updating the council on the situation said: “The council still has clear ambitions to redevelop the centre; deliver a regenerative benefit to the wider Altrincham area and produce further income to the council.
“Options for the redevelopment of the centre are to be produced and the council will work up proposals to bring back to executive for consideration.”
Possible future options for the site include:
- Reconfiguration/part new build – alternate uses where possible such as residential or workspace
- Major redevelopment – a wholesale redevelopment of the whole site
- Masterplan of the Upper George Street area – the report said: “Whilst the council own the Grafton Centre, there are also pockets of land in the surrounding vicinity which could form part of any redevelopment and therefore provide a greater regeneration benefit.”
But for now, while redevelopment is off the cards, the council wants to bring new tenants into the centre’s empty units, put on an events programme there and investing in repairs for the centre to try and breathe new life into it.
The council hopes that increased rent from filling vacant units will bring in an extra £84,000 over two years.
At the council’s executive meeting last night, Coun James Wright executive member for housing and regeneration said: “Unfortunately due to covid-19 our plans for Grafton have taken a step backwards. This is completely understandable given the impact of the pandemic and the medium and long-term fall out from it.
“We are still absolutely committed to regenerating and improving this part of Altrincham town centre but we must do this carefully and sustainably.
“The plan devised in 2019, whilst acceptable at the time, is no longer appropriate for a post-pandemic world. It is absolutely right and prudent for this administration to take stock and make changes to developments if they no longer add up.”
He added that while this has led to delays in the development of the Grafton Centre, pushing ahead with the proposals at this stage would be ‘callous’.
The investment will be used to carry out short-term maintenance of the site, repairing existing units in the centre and place a centre administrator as a coordinator for the site, who will help to manage it going forward.
The executive voted unanimously to approve the plans.
