Four compete for £125m Wigan Galleries
Muse Developments, Cityheart with BCEGI, Eric Wright Group and Queensberry have been shortlisted by Wigan Council to deliver the £125m overhaul of The Galleries.
The 440,000 sq ft shopping centre was bought by the council in March 2018 from Colcastor Sarl, based in Luxembourg. A competition was launched last year for a redevelopment of the site which would see a mix of uses and a reduction in retail space.
Options tabled for the £125m redevelopment could include adding hotel, residential, leisure, education, healthcare, or flexible workspaces, as well as a cinema or bowling alley.
Last year the council also pledged £4m to relocate Wigan market, with new facilities set to be included potentially within the former Marketgate building.
Muse and Cityheart were also recently in competition over a prime development site in another Greater Manchester town, the residential element of the £150m Stockport Interchange. Place North West revealed last week that Cityheart in a joint venture with Rise Homes had won the bid.
In Wigan, Cityheart is partnering with BCEGI, the Chinese-owned construction and engineering company which is also increasing its foothold in Greater Manchester with work in Bolton on the £100m overhaul of Crompton Shopping Centre with Midia.
Wigan Council has previously outlined its hopes for the scheme to be “of a high architectural and urban design quality” as part of its brief, with improved connectivity with the wider town centre also a priority.
A development agreement is likely to be finalised in 2021.
The council bought the site in March 2018 from Luxembourg-based Colcastor Sarl for an undisclosed sum, in a deal part-funded by money the council receives from Manchester Airport, where it is a shareholder along with Greater Manchester’s nine other authorities.
Asset manager Vales Retail gained planning consent in 2015 for a £60m overhaul of The Galleries, which proposed turning the centre’s 150 separate units into 26 larger shops, in order to attract restaurant operators and a cinema. The plans were never progressed.
Previous redevelopment announced in 2013
