The town centre regeneration plans for Swindon are moving ahead at full pace despite the credit crunch. We have just finalised a deal with Modus Properties that will see £200million of private and public money used to regenerate Regent Place (the old College site) into an upmarket shopping, dining and living space. It will also include a large number of desperately needed parking spaces!
The Muse development, which will regenerate the areas to the north of Fleming Way and around the bus station, is also in the final stages of development.
Two common questions I have been asked are, why have so many buildings been knocked down in the town centre and the areas left empty, and why has the old College building not yet been knocked down?
To answer, the first is because it avoids us paying any rates on the land. The buildings would need to have been knocked down anyway, but the current laws mean that if a commercial building is left unoccupied for six months then the owner must begin paying rates, and we didn’t want to waste tax payer’s money on this.
The old College site is actually being prepared for demolition and has been for several months. The problem is that significant amounts of asbestos were found in the building that need to be removed before the college can be demolished safely.
It’s very exciting that the plans for the town centre and coming to fruition and that we have managed to successfully attract a large amount of private sector money in order to achieve it. Please feel free to get in touch if you wish to discuss any element of the town centre regeneration!
