TODAY is decision day for multi-million-pound plans to create a new street in Southampton’s city centre.
Ambitious plans to demolish the failed Bargate centre and replace it with a “terraced garden street” linking the 12th century Bargate monument to Queensway are recommended for approval by Southampton City Council planners.
The council’s planning committee will debate the scheme proposed by Tellon Capital, the company which owns Bargate Property Ltd, at their meeting on Tuesday evening.
Tellon’s proposals would see the construction of 80,000 sq ft of shops and restaurants, accommodation for 450 students, and 140 private apartments and the creation of 200 jobs.
To achieve this the developers propose to bulldoze the 27-year-old Bargate Centre and its multi-storey car park, and numbers 77-101 Queensway, 25 East Street, 303-32 Hanover Buildings, 1-16 East Bargate.
The rear parts of numbers 1-4 High Street would also be demolished but their art deco frontages retained.
The proposed development will have 147 car parking spaces however, 110 of these will be reserved for the retail elements of the scheme. Leaving just 37 spaces for the private apartments and none for the student accommodation.
In addition, the tenancy agreements for the student accommodation will include a restrictive clause barring students from bringing their own cars The new pedestrianised street would be 15m wide and run parallel to East Street and Hanover Buildings.
It would incorporate a section of the old city walls and has been designed by architects Corstophine and Wright “to imitate the character of the gardens which were historically located along the wall”.
Missing sections of the historic wall south of Polymond Tower would contain seating, lighting columns and artwork.
The new boulveard would also include cafes and kiosks with outside seating.
Buildings at the Queensway end of the project could rise to eight or nine storeys, with others towards Bargate only one or two.
Residential flats would look out over the Bargate and Hoglands Park, James Burchell, director of Tellon, said public reaction to the plans, which went on show in May, had been “supportive and encouraging”.
“The public liked the fact that bringing back to life the walls and that the 30 per cent of the scheme is public realm.”
He said the Bargate Centre – which has been boarded up since 2013 – had failed because it had been a “closed end” scheme – its planned replacement would link the city centre to Queensway and Debenhams, cementing its place as an anchor store for the city centre.
He claimed there would be a spin-off benefits for East Street and the proposals would mean that the Baragte itself was once more the core of the city centre.
Mr Burchell said it was hoped to attract aspiration brands to the new development and making it “slightly more upmarket” than Westquay.
“We are not trying to compete with what’s already in the city centre,” said Mr Burchell.
He was also confident that any restaurants and cafes in the new development would be able to compete with the raft of new eateries which had just opened over the other side of the Bargate at Westquay.
The key to the developments success would be creating the right atmosphere and ambiance to increase “dwell time” in the city centre, he said.
If city councillors give the scheme the green light it was expected that building could start in September 2017 and the work would be completed in the summer of 2019.
Brad Roynon, a former chief executive of the city council, who chaired Go! Southampton the successful campaign to create a Business Improvement District (BID) in Southampton has given the scheme his backing.
“It is a very innovative scheme which will increase the offer of Southampton.
“I think it will help the old town and and the regeneration of East Street. It could also be catalyst for future development in that area.”
The plans have received a cautious welcome from Historic England who welcomed the heritage benefits of revitalising the walls but feared some of the proposed building were too tall and overbearing.
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