Your top six questions answered on Odeon development (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Your top six questions answered on Odeon development

11:32am Friday 24th October 2008 in Behind the News By Will Kilner

A new image of how the New Victoria Place development would look from Centenary Square

On September 29, Yorkshire Forward and its development partner Langtree Artisan started a week-long public exhibition to showcase a landmark city centre development.

Plans for the New Victoria Place scheme, on the site of the former Odeon cinema and bingo hall, have since been submitted to Bradford Council and are available for inspection at the Jacobs Well building.

The scheme would include a hotel, the city centre’s first A-grade offices, apartments, bars, restaurants and cafes, all centred around a vibrant public square.

In recent weeks, those behind the scheme say they have faced a number of recurring questions.

The public has demanded to know how the scheme can go ahead in the current economic climate, why the proposed building is so big, why the current building has been “left to rot” and why it cannot be made into a concert hall.

People have also asked why no consideration has been given to a rival scheme from the Bradford Odeon Rescue Group (BORG) which involves converting the existing building into a hotel, nightclub, concert hall and cinema.

Q: Why is the proposed building so big and will it dwarf the Alhambra?

The development team believes the development will punch its weight in the new Bradford, where more tall buildings are set to be created, while respecting the existing Bradford, notably the Alhambra and City Hall.

David Rolinson, of Spawforths, the planning consultants to Langtree Artisan, said the new building needed to form part of the setting for the proposed Park at the Heart. “That will be a massive space and needs a building of scale to enclose it,” said Mr Rolinson.

New Victoria Place also needed to hold its own next to large buildings like the proposed MacAleer and Rushe hotel development in Thornton Road and the massive student village in Listerhills.

“All that tells us that it has to be a big building to be part of a family of buildings that come through and link the area. At the same time, it has to respect the existing Bradford, so the majority of its scale is up the Thornton Road side and it tapers down towards the Alhambra.”

The Alhambra was a jewel in Bradford’s crown, he said, but added: “That shouldn’t mean the whole future of Bradford has to be smaller than the Alhambra.

“We have tried to come up with something that’s more of a backdrop to the Alhambra rather than a rival. In doing that we don’t do something that’s smaller.”

The best way to enhance the area around the Alhambra was to improve its setting by enlarging the public realm. It was expensive but would “celebrate the area”.

Dave Custance, assistant director of environment at Yorkshire Forward, said: “Bradford punches below its weight and needs this scale of building to make a statement. Tall buildings can be extremely graceful.”

Along Thornton Road it equates to ten floors then slopes down to seven floors at its southern edge to respect the Alhambra.

Glyn Turner, regional development manager for Langtree Artisan, said: “The current (Odeon) building is about 20 metres high, so we are adding about five or ten metres to that at the low point.

“The old building was trying to replicate the Alhambra and we have always said that was wrong because, architecturally, it takes away the merit of the Alhambra.

“We are trying to create a family of buildings around the key building.”

Q: Why has the existing building been left to rot?

Yorkshire Forward, the public-funded regional development agency which has owned the site since 2003, said it would be a waste of money to spruce up a building that was earmarked for demolition.

Dave Custance said: “We take health and safety extremely seriously and we apply that to this building.

“People ask why we are not doing X,Y and Z to this building. If the work doesn’t relate to health and safety, from the public purse point of view it would not make sense to the tax payer for us to be spending a lot of money on decorative issues when the current proposals are for it to be demolished.”

Yorkshire Forward had already carried out maintenance work costing £60,000 to make the building look “generally acceptable.” More work to clear weeds would start on Wednesday.

One major cause for concern, raised by those who want to preserve the building, has revolved around the building’s damaged internal fall pipes at first floor level, which are leading to damage to carpets and woodwork.

Mr Custance said: “We are keeping Bradford residents regularly informed in terms of our maintenance and no-one has approached us asking us to do any further internal maintenance.”

Q: Why can’t the existing building be retained? Why hasn’t BORG’s alternative scheme been considered?

Mr Custance said the private sector would undoubtedly have looked at the former Odeon building between 2000, when it closed, and 2003, when Yorkshire Forward bought it.

He said: “It was left derelict and not put back into use because of ‘market failure’. The private sector looked at it and thought ‘it’s not fit for purpose’.

“In this instance, we took a view that it was a very well-located site within Bradford and its redevelopment in some shape or form was important for Bradford.

“At that stage, we had no idea if that would mean demolition or conversion. We went out to the market and said ‘what can you do with this site, realistically?’ “We had 18 responses back at that stage and none of them looked at retaining the building apart from one notional idea which involved retaining the towers.

“The action group (BORG) which has been lobbying never actually approached us during that period of the developer competition.

“If it had such fantastic ideas and private sector investment, why didn’t it come in at that stage and give us its proposal?

“There was no appetite for bringing it back into any use, one, due to its condition, two, the general floor layout and, three, the lack of demand in the market for that kind of building.”

Mr Custance said the rules of procurement and the fact that Yorkshire Forward was now in a contractual situation with its preferred developer, Langtree Artisan, meant a rival scheme could no longer be considered.

He said: “Nobody has ever approached us anyway.”

Mr Rolinson said: “It has been put to me that they (BORG) did not know Yorkshire Forward would accept a proposal for conversion.

“In the developer competition, a booklet was put out that makes it clear that there was ‘no prescribed solution’ to that site. Conversion was not ruled in or out. It would have been an acceptable response.

“Ours is the only ‘real’ viable scheme on the table. These other schemes are just not real – they are not there. Nobody has even approached the landowner, so we are fighting shadows.”

Q: Why not use the £55 million on a new concert hall?

Mr Custance said: “We had a chat with a couple of women who said why not invest the £55 million into a new concert hall? If this was a conversion into a concert hall, there would not be the £55 million there to invest in the first place because there would be no interest from the private sector.”

Mr Rolinson said a leisure demand study had proved there was no appetite for a building with that type of use, especially considering the considerable cost of restoration.

An independent structural survey by engineering firm Ramboll Whitbybird showed that the building had major structural faults and contained a substantial amount of asbestos.

A subsequent study by construction consultants Arcadis AYH has estimated the cost of refurbishing the existing building to be more than £6 million.

This would include more than £1 million to rectify the structural faults identified by Ramboll Whitbybird, £646,000 for the soft strip-out and asbestos removal, £3.4 million for refurbishment to operational status and £645,000 in fees.

Mr Rolinson added: “Anything can be converted if you throw enough money at it, but we have the evidence to say it’s not a viable long-term solution.”

Q: How can it go ahead in the current economic climate?

Mr Custance said: “The current climate is difficult regionally, nationally and globally but we continue to be assured by the fact that Langtree Artisan are still with us as the development partner.

“Like any development, it is a short, medium and long-term affair. We take great confidence in the fact that Langtree Artisan, like us, take a long-term view of the situation.”

Glyn Turner, regional development manager for Langtree Artisan, said the timing of the development was important.

He said: “If the timing had been earlier, it could have been a problematic position. The time that will be taken for this planning process to be done in a diligent manner could well allow us the flexibility to hit the development cycle when it does return.

“We are confident that 2010 will be an opportunity to start on site.”

He said the New Victoria Place scheme could benefit from the positive knock-on effect of other city centre developments, including the Westfield scheme, which he said would have a “complimentary effect”.

He added: “We will have to have some resolve and work through this to better times.”

Q: Why support the scheme?

Mr Custance said: “The message to the people of Bradford is that they should be coming out and applauding this sort of scheme because it’s investment into Bradford on a scale that’s not been seen before and we don’t need people dragging back this kind of investment.

“People should take time to look at the facts and the application. We want people to come forward and support this application and lobby their members and say they are behind it.

“It’s a shame when all we get is the negatives. There’s no other scheme if this does not happen. What’s the alternative? There’s no Plan B.”

Mr Turner said: “The people of Bradford have got to realise that continuous negative opinion about positive projects does have an impact on investors and the wider economic viewpoint.

“When people become enthused about this city, it then has a wider knock-on effect. Bradford deserves more.”

He said the proposals for New Victoria Place sought to incorporate employment opportunities, retail, leisure and new homes, delivering a sustainable and economically viable scheme.

The area could also be enhanced by highways improvements, with the developer proposing to contribute £500,000 to improve existing linkages into and through the proposed scheme and enhancing the busy pedestrian crossing across Princes Way.