Deadline passes for unveiling of City Centre South anchor store
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 1:20 pm
The developer was due to announce who the operator of a department store at the heart of the scheme would be by June
The developer of Coventry city centre’s City Centre South retail scheme has missed a deadline that had been set to announce an anchor store for the huge shopping complex.
Work on delivering Coventry City Council’s £300m scheme continues but developer Shearer Property Group was due to announce who the operator of a department store at the heart of the scheme would be by June this year.
The sprawling City Centre South complex will be the size of Solihull’s Touchwood development and the council says it will make Coventry the second biggest shopping destination in the West Midlands after Birmingham.
Although the deadline to announce the anchor store has not been met, the councillor overseeing the huge project says it does not pose a problem.
In December 2017 Cllr Jim O’Boyle, cabinet member for jobs and regeneration, told a meeting of the full council that Shearer Property Group had until June this year to secure a major department store as the anchor store for the development.
Although no anchor store has been announced Councillor O’Boyle has maintained City Centre South is still very much on track and that the delay is about ensuring the scheme is “future-proofed”.
Cllr O’Boyle has previously hailed the ambitious £300m development as an example of Coventry benefiting from the devolution deal for the Midlands, with the West Midlands Combined Authority contributing £260m towards it.
He has also described it as “transformational” and “the biggest development of our city since the war”.