Crompton Place demo, Bolton Council, p planning docs

The demolition will open up a nearly four-acre development site in the town centre. Credit: via planning documents

Bolton readies bulldozers for Crompton Place

The council has applied to demolish the 280,000 sq ft former shopping centre, which it purchased in 2018 as part of a town centre regeneration masterplan.

Subject to approval, the demolition will complete in less than a year and create a 3.8-acre site between Victoria Square and Bradshawgate that is ready for redevelopment into a mixed-use scheme that Bolton Council hopes will rejuvenate the town centre.

Bolton Council plans to launch its hunt for a development partner for the potentially transformational project next month.

The intention is to secure a development partner as soon as possible, so that plans for meanwhile use can be in place before demolition of the complex, which opened in 1971, starts, the council said.

Bolton Council Leader, Cllr Nick Peel, said the demolition of the out-dated Crompton Place “sends a clear signal that Bolton means business”

“We have already had significant interest in the site, and we are confident that investment in the site will attract even more developers to other parts of the town centre.”

The project has been a long time in the making and has suffered a previous false dawn. In 2018, plans for a 110-bed hotel, 50 homes, and 113,000 sq ft of offices were put forward by a joint venture between the council, BCEGI, and Midia – but when it was realised the project did not make fiscal sense it was abandoned and the JV dissolved.

CBRE is advising the council on the procurement of a development partner and on planning.

Executive director, Adam White, said: “The Crompton Place redevelopment is a cornerstone of the council and the Greater Manchester Mayor’s place-based regeneration strategy.

“The council is committed to enabling the site by facilitating the complete demolition of the outdated shopping centre and is seeking a best-in-class development partner to deliver a high-quality, inclusive, residential-led mixed-use scheme.”

Chapman Taylor, WSP, Civic Heritage, Appletons, and Oxford Archaeology are also advising on the demolition plans.

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Can’t come soon enough. Was in Bolton on the weekend and the town centre was pretty bleak. Get people living in the town centre and let the town reinvent itself.

By Mixu Paatelainen

Where are any of the endangered species when we really need them. ?

By Auntypoliticians

I’m going to miss Crompton place the way it was they should leave it as it is

By Victoria

History says this is a perilous action from other development sites also redundant and stagnated in the town centre with developers quick to sign slow to fund and complete…

By Richard

Why can things not be left as they are Bolton as already been ruined with all the new flats and houses that have been built there is no shops left for the people that live here still now never mind when all those houses have been filled the heart and soul as been ripped out of the town I love and have lived in all my life it’s just sad

By Anonymous

That Town Hall, wouldn’t shame a European capital, what utter architectural carnage, surrounds it. This is an opportunity to rectify this. Good luck Bolton.

By Elephant

It’s frustrating that councils still believe site clearances will attract top-tier development. If there were genuine interest, developers would already be involved. This approach seems pointless—ultimately, taxpayers just end up swapping an empty building for an empty plot.

By Welsh

It won’t be the rue de Rivoli, wil it?

By Tony Heyes

Next to go will no doubt be St Andrew ‘ s Court . Most of the premises are empty and it sad to see what was a nice alternative shopping court neglected .

By Anonymous

Build new homes & flats the in town centre , council’s brilliant idea but with the demolition of CROMPTON PLACE , it another nail in coffin for Bolton as a shopping town . Soon there will only be The Market Place for decent retail shops , even the Market lost its character now . Same has happened in nearby Farnworth , built a mix of Flats & Houses on site of what was previously the Precinct & former site of the Market ( which was empty space for a long time ) . There are units for retail or offices . So far all we have is THE COFFEE SHOP .

By Anonymous

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