The decision was made during a meeting of the full council and was an important step forward in the long-awaited development of The Martlets Shopping Centre.
The saga of The Martlets has been dragging on for years, with multi-million pound redevelopment plans being hamstrung by a declining retail market, the pandemic and a lack of money.
Planning permission for a redevelopment scheme has been in place since July 2021 and leader Robert Eggleston said the intention was to ‘deliver the consented plan as far as we possibly can’.
Mr Eggleston told councillors there had been ‘extensive and exhausting’ negotiations with NewRiver to come up with a structure that ‘protects the finances of this council’ and gives ‘real cause for hope that the beginning of the regeneration of the Martlets Shopping Centre will happen’.
The venture proposes that the council and NewRiver unite their respective land interests – freehold for the council, leasehold for NewRiver – into a Special Purpose Vehicle which will be jointly owned.
A Special Purpose Vehicle is essentially a separate company with its own assets, which would be protected should either the council or NewRiver go bust.
The joint venture came with a number of financial conditions, which councillors discussed behind closed doors.
Mr Eggleston said the conditions were ‘not insurmountable but contain risk’.
Calling on councillors to put aside any ‘misgivings, he added: “While we do not have certainty, this is our best chance of securing a start to the redevelopment.”
He warned that the alternative was ‘more years of decline because the funding and the appetite will disappear’.
Councillors agreed by 41 votes to zero with four abstentions to enter into the joint venture.
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