Tenders will shortly be invited by Westfield for construction of the long stalled £275 million Broadway city centre shopping centre development in Bradford.
Site preparation works got under way today on the 12 acre Broadway site that has lain dormant since 2008, being dubbed the Bradford Hole locally. Westfield has developed the project along with Meyer Bergman which has organised investment to ‘forward purchase it with Westfield committed to design, construct, lease and manage it on completion.
Westfield director of development Duncan Bower said that site preparation works and a ‘meet the buyer’ event to be held on 11 December at Bradford Football Club were positive signs that the project would finally get properly under way, with a start date before the end of the year.
A growing list of retailers signing up to take retail space is behind the developer’s new confidence to take the project forward. The development is significantly smaller than the original 100-retail unit plan that received planning approval as long ago as 2003.
The development will now comprise at least 70 retail units over 570,000 sq ft of space, with parking for over 1,300 cars, new public spaces, restaurants and cafes and improved links to neighbouring areas.
Key retailers signed up so far include Debenhams which is taking over 100,000 sq ft, Marks & Spencer and Next. The Broadway development is part of a wider regeneration masterplan being led by the city council and will complete its “Connecting the City” project, providing new links to the major quarters of the city centre like City Park, the Law Courts and the Little Germany/Cathedral Quarter.
(Photo: Westfield)
