Don’t know if you have seen todays local paper 07/03/2014 @ todmordennews.co.uk/news/business/business-news/major-business-complex-awaits-green-light-1-6481537 This is a summary of my notes and details before Todmorden News edited.. Further to my recent thoughts of the town centre and Rose St, I am writing to give my latest knowledge as to where we are at present with the potential to develop the Rose Street site. You will be aware that initially the Calderdale Council drew up a Development Brief for the development of the Todmorden town centre area. This Brief was used in the marketing of the site through GVA Grimley, who were the Calder Councils appointed agents at that time. This work was overseen by the Todmorden Town Centre Renaissance Partnership Board, of which Simon Brearley and David Storah were members. In view of European Rules, which have to be adopted, the marketing process was particularly complicated and eventually unsuccessful with only one proposal coming forward. The view of the Councils Procurement Officer was that as a competition between three companies could not be established, the marketing process was deemed to be unsuccessful. Simon Brearley and David Storah, as members of the Todmorden Town Centre Renaissance Partnership board, lobbied that they be allowed to speak directly to the company who had expressed an interest in the development, Resilienti, and that discussions should be held with the company to establish their position and how matters might move forward. This proposal was rejected and indeed Todmorden Town Centre Renaissance Partnership board members were not even given details of the company who had expressed an interest as this was deemed to be against the rules that were in place. Following Simon Brearley and David Storah being asked to leave the board and the new development group being set up, direct contact was made by Simon Brearley with Resilienti and subsequently meetings were held with the directors of the company to discuss how matters could progress. Since that time, the company did try to make direct contact with the Council to hold discussions, although initially this was unsuccessful. Following Todmorden Prides request that the company come to speak to us to discuss their position and bring their interest out into a more public arena, a meeting with James Crawley at Calderdale Council was then offered to the developers. I understand this meeting is to take place on 7th March. If one was being particularly cynical one might suggest that the meeting with the Council was only offered after it became clear that the interested developers would become more widely known about following the meeting with Todmorden Pride. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of the meeting, which I will be attending, with the Council on 7th March is. The company who have expressed an interest in the site are Resilienti, whos website is resilienti, this will give you a little more background information in relation to the company and the kind of developments they do and the occupiers with which they have close associations. The company director we have been dealing with is Kerrie Whitely, who is their Development Director and she can be contacted on ******* or *******. At the present time the company are doing a development in association with Barnsley District Council in Hoyland, which is quite similar in make up to the development which could be completed in Todmorden. As part of the original bid put forward by Resilienti they did draft a very basic scheme to allow costings to be drawn up and an amount to be offered to the Council for the purchase of the site. This scheme, because of its very nature, was not worked through in any great detail and was little more than an indicative scheme for the land. Should the developers be given chance to negotiate a purchase of the land from the Council they would obviously then be in position to work up a much more detailed scheme, which would be more sympathetic to the towns requirements and would reflect interest from occupiers in the site. It is understood that the company have a number of retailers who have expressed a strong interest in moving into the development and indeed have between 13,000 - 15,000 sq.ft of accommodation essentially under offer. In addition to this commercial interest discussions have taken place with locals in Todmorden and I also have a public service who would also be willing and able to take on accommodation. I have suggested that they reconsider and perhaps make it a double storey to fit more in line with buildings around, You will be aware that the original development brief looked at a much wider area of the town centre and asked developers to give contributions to public realm works within Todmorden. I know for instance, in the Hoyland Scheme, a public square is being developed as part of the overall offer and this is again something which could be considered within Todmorden town centre. I think that for some time there has been given an impression that there were no companies at all interested in the development of Rose Street when clearly there are companies with the ability to move forward on the land. The process which the Council had to go through to market the site was particularly off-putting in a market place where the number of developers was restricted and speculative developments were not being pursued. Market conditions have now changed somewhat however, an overly complicated marketing process would again, I believe, be off-putting to developers and I think that the direct conversation with the company with a keen interest in moving forward should certainly now take place. I don’t know if I will be able to persuade Councillors that this is an opportunity worth pursuing, but I am sure that the representatives of Resilienti would be more than happy to speak to Todmorden Council to give their thoughts in relation to how matters could be moved forward in a way that would meet all parties requirements . I hope to get every one together at the next development meeting.. Cllr Chris
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 15:11:11 +0000
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