A mixed-use development in the Midlands is being hailed as a model for the revitalization of UK city centers after COVID.
The Beeston Square development in Nottinghamshire, planned and designed by Leonard Design Architects, will start its first phase next month – the opening of the first brand new cinema and town square complex after the lockdown.
It is planned to be surrounded by cafes and restaurants backed by a large housing estate and served by a tram-bus interchange connecting it to both Nottingham city center and a number of suburbs and communities .
In addition to being home to Russell Group University in Nottingham and the national headquarters of Boots UK, Beeston also has direct rail links to London. In normal times, the station is used by more than 570,000 commuters per year.
The cinema complex, which is inhabited by Irish operator The Arc Cinema, is adjacent to a planned 132-apartment development that will support both existing downtown retail and a new line of food and beverage operators.
The development has been carefully curated by the local planning authority Broxtowe Borough Council as part of a long-term commitment to redesign all city centers due to the impact of e-commerce on physical retail.
Ruth Hyde, CEO of the Council stated, “In the cold light of COVID and climate change, we have thought long and hard about the future of our city centers, both in terms of the short term support we can provide to our communities and the local economy and in the long run, they need to help you recover and develop, but remain attractive.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and the most important thing is to understand the reality of the challenges our cities are facing, focus on their particular strengths, and maintain a dialogue with their local businesses and the communities that use them them about how we can make progress.
“What we’ve done in Beeston is working closely with our business partners on this project to create a development that we believe will not only serve the existing community, but will attract new visitors and provide real vitality through new living spaces . ”
The ambitious neighborhood is also one of five local authorities that have teamed up to create a proposed East Midlands Development Corporation. The initiative is promoting a number of large-scale developments that are expected to create 84,000 jobs and add £ 4.8 billion to the regional economy – including the proposed East Midlands Freeport just a few miles away.
Ruth Hyde added: “There are good reasons to be optimistic about the future of the East Midlands. It is important for all municipalities to be flexible and adaptable to changing needs and circumstances. We are determined to improve all of our city centers, but what we aim to achieve in each one will be subtly different. ”
The team at Leonard Design Architects was led by director John Morgan, whose portfolio includes a number of groundbreaking retail and mixed use urban developments across the UK, including the Heart of the City master plan in Sheffield and the Sneinton Market project in Nottingham . It has also delivered urban developments in Berlin, Copenhagen and Oslo.
According to Morgan, the Broxtowe Borough Council approach is characterized by its willingness to adapt to changing circumstances.
He said, “The key is to realize that the desire for recreational experiences continues to grow as consumer behavior evolves. This scheme recognizes that while you cannot reinvent the past in terms of retail, you can embrace a future that avoids some of the unnecessarily bleak predictions of city center viability.
“In particular, Broxtowe Borough Council has built on the raw numbers of a community that remains a dormitory for a number of large institutions, including Boots UK headquarters and the University of Nottingham.”
Morgan added, “Broxtowe has never strayed from the site’s fundamental potential and therefore from its belief in its viability. They were willing to think differently about the structure of the development and to tailor the central leisure element to a potential end-user, but to be flexible with regard to the living element, provided that design coherence was maintained. This flexibility is why we believe this could become a model for similar city center revitalization projects. ”
Nick Ferris of JLL, a Joint Agent, said, “Much has been said about the challenges city centers face. What we have here is a local authority and a place where a coherent proposal has actually been made to transform these challenges into a new viability of vitality with a gateway development. ”
Will Torr of Joint Agents HEB added, “This is a city center that is reinventing itself and we expect to soon announce that the cinema will be accompanied by food and beverage operators. Once the living element is put into operation, it could be a really significant success story. ”
The team behind the development also includes the main contractor Bowmer + Kirkland and the project manager Faithful + Gould.