Redevelopment brings new experience to Thornaby

Thornaby town centre near the south of Middlesbrough, has been transformed by a regeneration scheme from a neglected 1960s shopping arcade into a modern retail facility, boasting major discount retail brands.

Wilkinson, Peacocks, Home Bargains, New Look and Bon Marché, are also set to move in by the end of summer and a number of smaller retailers who occupied the old town centre sites have already relocated.

The regeneration has been a time-consuming and complex process that has had to take into account the needs of numerous stakeholders – residents, the developer, Stockton Borough Council, previous tenants and potential new retailers.

Regeneration began in 2004, and Sanderson Weatherall, a full service property consultancy with offices in the North of England, has played an instrumental role in the process. During the five-year programme, the firm has assisted the property developers, Thornfield Plc, with advice on Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) to configuration and marketing the units to retailers in the final phases of the project.  

Andrew Wilkinson, a Director at Sanderson Weatherall’s Teesside office has been involved with the Thornaby project from the start said: “By their nature, regeneration projects are complicated, because they aim to refresh the best of the old site with a fairly comprehensive rebuilding programme. This means many considerations have to be taken into account and managed. For us, Thornaby’s redevelopment has been a challenging and exciting project to work on and has required our full range of services.

“It started with a thorough valuation of the original shops and flats built in the 1960s and finished with us marketing the site to prospective occupiers and ensuring the long-term viability of the scheme. In between, we assisted with the strategy and negotiation of the CPOs, scheduled the demolition and refurbishment stages and ensured that the retail units met the needs of potential occupiers in terms of size, specification and configuration.

“Our multi-disciplinary approach – architects, valuers, surveyors, lease negotiators and other divisions working alongside each other – meant each phase was handed from specialist to specialist with the minimal amount of disruption. In this case, it has meant Thornaby’s residents get a revitalised town centre with a wide choice of shops, and Thornfield have a profitable development on their books.” 

Thornaby’s regeneration is attractive to retailers because it is situated in a pocket that has been poorly served for shopping choice, said Amanda Burbridge, an Associate Director at Sanderson Weatherall: “Of the 250,000 sq ft of retail accommodation the scheme provides, 80 percent is already accounted for. Given the recession’s impact on the retail sector, these high occupancy levels reflect the confidence retailers feel for Thornaby.

Traditionally, she added: “Thornaby has been overshadowed by shopping opportunities in Stockton and Middlesbrough’s out-of-town retail developments. The necessity to regenerate Thornaby’s rather ‘down at heel’ urban centre though, presented the opportunity to create a great shopping environment on the doorstep for Stockton’s residents. When the regeneration plans were announced back in 2004, they received overwhelming support – nearly 95 percent of Thornaby residents who saw the plans strongly approved of the direction they were taking.”

Phase one of the regeneration was completed in November 2008. Phase two will be complete by Easter 2009, with the official site opening scheduled for the end of April. After that, construction teams will turn their attention to Phase three on the site of Appleby House, where a new Lidl store will be completed by autumn 2009.

Wider afield, other urban locations in the Tees Valleys are being extensively redeveloped. Tees Valley Regeneration, a £2b investment programme in partnership with One North East and local borough councils is funding commercial, residential and leisure schemes at five principle sites in the region – Middlehaven in Middlesbrough, NorthShore in Stockton, Central Park in Darlington, Victoria Harbour in Hartlepool and the SKYLINK International Business Park at Durham Tees Valley Airport.