What next for trio of major Bolton schemes?
Capital&Centric is lined up to deliver the stalled Trinity Gateway residential project, while the council’s search for partners to bring forward the redevelopment of Le Mans Crescent and Crompton Place continues.
At a special event last week, the council outlined Bolton’s development opportunities to potential investors.
Council leader Martyn Cox said the borough was open for business and eager to collaborate with the private sector to deliver its pipeline and boost economic growth.
Le Mans Crescent, Crompton Place, and Trinity Gateway present the three largest opportunities identified by the council; the three projects have an estimated combined GDV of £250m.
There was much excitement around the hat-trick of town centre projects when they were first announced but progress ground to a halt when Bolton Council parted ways with Midia – latterly known as Granite Turner – and Bolton Regeneration, the joint venture between Midia and BCEGI, in 2021.
Bolton Regeneration was dissolved last year.
In 2019, Bolton granted Midia planning permission for an 87-bedroom hotel with 17 serviced apartments within the grade two-listed Le Mans Crescent building.
The council, which missed out on Levelling Up Fund cash to revive the scheme earlier this year, said it will review feedback from the failed bid before deciding on next steps.
The £175m redevelopment of Crompton Place, arguably the highest profile project within Bolton’s town centre pipeline, stalled after plans from Bolton Regeneration were approved in 2020.
Bolton bought the 230,000 sq ft shopping centre in June 2018 for £14.8m from Santander Pension Fund.
The site was earmarked for a complete overhaul that would provide a 110-bedroom hotel, 150 homes, and 113,000 sq ft of office space.
Last year, Place North West reported the project would be delayed until at least 2024.
Cllr Martyn Cox implored the private sector to invest in Bolton. Credit: Paul Heyes via Bolton Council
At the Invest in Bolton event, the council’s director of place Jon Dyson said the project remains one of Bolton’s “significant investment priorities”.
He added that discussions with potential partners were ongoing and that the council was working towards securing vacant possession of the centre.
One key site that is progressing is Trinity Gateway, another ex-Midia/Granite Turner development.
Plans for a 20-storey residential tower comprising 144 apartments were approved in 2019 but the site remains vacant.
Capital&Centric has now stepped in to take over the scheme, having agreed a deal to bring forward housing on several gateway sites totalling 6.2 acres.
The developer is looking to re-masterplan the site as part of its wider Neighbourhood scheme, which aims to regenerate sites around the train station and bus interchange.
Instead of a tower, plans are being worked up for “design-led townhouses”, according to the council.
Speaking at the event, Capital&Centric co-founder Tim Heatley said Bolton was “leading the pack” of GM towns bidding to deliver an alternative to city centre living.
The three major schemes form part of an overarching regeneration strategy for Bolton. A study of the town centre by Deloitte outlined the scale of what could be delivered in over the next two decades.
The population of the town centre currently stands at around 2,00o people. By 2040, this could rise to around 9,500, according to Deloitte.
Bolton’s residential pipeline in the town centre – which includes Placefirst’s £35m Central Street scheme that started on site recently – could boost property values from an average of £160,000 currently to £460,000 in 2040, according to Deloitte’s projections.
Bolton will forever suffer due to terrible council decisions over the years:
– The decision to build over TWO disused railway lines into the town, one from Walkden and one from Radcliffe, which means Metrolink will likely never reach the town.
– The decision to move Bolton FC’s stadium out of the town centre and into the middle of nowhere;
– The approval of several out of town retail parks which destroyed the town centre’s retail offer.
By Anonymous
It was a great event and credit to the council for holding it. I do feel it’s important that they should also look to the skills on offer in the town as well as looking for outside investment. As a town it doesn’t use the talent and companies on its doorstep. I have worked in the town all the career and had no opportunities to get involved in any regeneration bids. If you use local talent and businesses it recycles the income and investment in the town.
By DJ
Bolton town centre desperately needs investment its absolutely dire at the moment. The town is in danger of being left behind and the council have left it far too late to address the issues.
By Jon P
What next for trio of major Bolton schemes? Nothing
By Vernon Jay
Strange how Tim Heatley also says Stockport is the alternative to Manchester
Make your mind up Tim , sound bites like yours are normally for politicians !
By Salford Red
The developer stepped in?? How come Bolton are ignoring any form of competition in the procurement of a development partner? If the offer is a significant level of grant funding to help viability, I’m sure they would have a significant level of interred from development partners??
By Question
The Tory council in Bolton are a complete and utter shambles.Bolton has the worst civic leadership in the entire country completely devoid of ambition and ability and just making unfulfilled promises of redevelopment to public that they know won’t happen.Even the Tory government does not want to do anything for this Tory council that has presided over exit of Marks and Spencer from the town.
By Anonymous
What is the point of moving everybody to live in town. When there is no shops there to shop in. So people will travel to Bury Manchester to spend money when money should be spent here.Need to bring the shopping area back. Too many empty shops
By Anonymous
What’s the point of providing more shops if there’s no one left to shop in them?
The mind boggles
By Anonymous
Keep the Tower idea.
By Anonymous
Parochialism is Bolton’s problem. Go back to Lancashire if you want. I am a proud Lancastrian, born and bred in Oldham but I have the brains to understand, that in order for the mill towns to thrive, they need to become Manchester satellites, in the way the places around London, thrive because of that city. The days of stand alone economies and different colour buses, in these towns have gone. We are a conurbation now, and Bolton can accept Manchester’s ripples, or join the Rossendale Valley, and face even more decline.
By Elephant