Planning approved for larger scheme in bury

Town centre regeneration specialist, Thornfield Properties, has secured planning permission for an enlarged version of its scheme in Bury town centre, known as the Rock

The newly approved plans will deliver a major £330m, mixed-use development covering 17 acres of land in Bury town centre, which will be transformed into a 1.6m sq ft retail, leisure and residential destination.

Thornfield’s revised plans, which were approved by the Council on 23rd October, include a new department store of 77,000 sq ft (gross) for Marks & Spencer which will now sit alongside the planned 103,000 sq ft Debenhams store at the eastern end of the scheme. Marks & Spencer have agreed terms to relocate their current town centre store to The Rock in a move that will see the retailers’ presence in Bury almost double.

John Handy, Property Surveyor at Marks & Spencer said: "We are delighted to have exchanged an Agreement to Lease for a major new Marks & Spencer store at The Rock, which we know will be a great shopping destination for Bury".
Jason Marcus, Chairman of Thornfield said, “Thornfield is fully committed to this major project and we are very pleased to have secured permission for our revised plans and to be able to announce we have signed up another quality retail anchor such as Marks & Spencer. We strongly believe this will act as a catalyst for major inward investment in Bury from other retailers and commercial occupiers that will deliver benefits to Bury in a much wider sense.”

Alongside Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, Thornfield’s scheme will also deliver, 60 other retail units, including a 20,000 sq ft store for Next (a total of 550,000 sq ft of retail uses.) Leisure uses will include a 10 screen Vue Cinema, a 25 lane AMF ten pin bowling alley and eight restaurants (totalling 125,000 sq ft of leisure). To support the retail and leisure uses a 1,250 space multi-storey car park is being built.

A total of 397 residential apartments will be integrated with the commercial uses delivering a mixture of studio, one and two bedroom units. All the apartments have been designed to the Homes for Life design standard. The apartments will go on general release in spring 2008.

To complete the mix of uses the scheme will provide wider community benefits through a 45,000sq ft PCT Walk in Centre that will accommodate 24 hour medical care, an A&E department, three doctors’ practices and dentistry facilities.
To demonstrate their intent to deliver this significant scheme Thornfield have already invested in excess of £70m towards early enabling works, clearing the site, relocating a church and are now nearing completion on a new £10m ring road for the town to accommodate the additional traffic flow to and from the scheme.

The Rock will be delivered in phases; the ring road will be open later this year, followed by the medical centre, which is scheduled to open in summer 2008. The main retail and leisure elements are planned to open in 2010.

The agents acting on behalf of Thornfield are CB Richard Ellis and Gooch Cunliffe Whale. The architect for the scheme is BDP.