Ravenscraig finds new retail partner

Mar 17 2008

Wilson Bowden Developments will form a joint venture with international retail and leisure specialists Richardsons Capital to spearhead development of a new £600m town centre on the former Ravenscraig steelworks site in Lanarkshire.

In addition, internationally-renowned architects HOK have been selected to develop draft concepts for the town centre along with property advisors Cushman & Wakefield and Glasgow based retail specialists Hamilton Glen.

The new town centre will feature 1 million sq ft of retail and leisure facilities and work is expected to begin in 2009. Around 1500 housing units and 500,000 sq ft of commercial space will also be created.

It will be served by a new railway station, a bus interchange, and have substantial car parking with dual carriageway access from both M8 and M74.

Richardsons has an extensive track record in delivering major retail and leisure projects around the UK and Europe, including Westwood Cross in Kent, Printworks in Manchester, Merry Hill Regional Shopping Centre in Dudley, Castel Romano in Rome and Parndorf in Vienna.

Wilson Bowden Developments and Richardsons have worked together on a number of previous projects, including Edinburgh Fort.

HOK is the world’s largest architectural and engineering firm and has designed many retail centres around the globe, including the Dubai Marina and the Suzhou Industrial Park Time Square in China.

Work is already well under way on the £200m first phase of the redevelopment of the 1,100 acre site in Lanarkshire with a £30 million regional sports facility, a £70m campus for Motherwell College and 850 new houses.

Wilson Bowden development director Jim Fitzsimons said: "This is a project of national significance and it is vitally important we get the best people involved to bring it off the drawing board and into reality.

"Both Richardsons and HOK share our vision of what is required to make Ravenscraig a success and we are confident they will help us deliver an stunning development which will become a landmark destination in central Scotland.

"The evolution of phase one, which has seen major investment in state-of-the-art sport and education facilities, combined with our ambitious plans for phase two, offer concrete evidence that the rebirth of Ravenscraig is now well under way."

The redevelopment of Ravenscraig is expected to create 12,000 jobs and attract in excess of £1.2bn of private sector investment over a period of 15 to 20 years.

Development activity for phase two is scheduled to begin later in 2008 and work will continue for three years.