Example Key Projects
Market Walk, Chorley
The Market Walk shopping centre in Chorley is in decline, with a high level of vacancy rates and lack of significant investment. The Council's 2009 Retail Study identified that Chorley required significant investment to be able to compete with the surrounding centres such as Bolton, Preston and Blackburn. With a plethora of smaller retail units, Chorley requires a marquee anchor tenant to kick start future investment.
Working closely with RREEF, NJL advised that a large floor plate on the adjoining piece of land next to Market Walk would be suitable to create a natural extension to Market Walk whilst also creating a new landmark building and associated public realm to define the new era in retail shopping in Chorley. The application site is the existing Council owned car park and therefore required significant consultation with the Council as well as a replacement MSCP as part of the development.
As a result of the economic uncertainty and nervousness of retailers, speculative development is unfavourable and an Outline application was progressed to offer RREEF a financially viable project whilst also providing a tangible scheme to present to perspective occupiers.
Continued Council negotiations and consultation have led to several alterations to the original scheme which demanded significant flexibility. The revised scheme now retains a degree of flexibility but offers guarantees on design and scale which the Council require as a key stakeholder in the site.
The application was approved in February 2011 and progress is now being made on the Reserved Matters Application.
