Capital&Centric and Bolton part ways on 160-home Trinity Gateway project
Plans to deliver apartments on a clutch of sites close to the town’s transport interchange were submitted in 2023 but the scheme has now hit the buffers.
It is almost two years since Capital&Centric announced it was working with Bolton Council to redevelop six acres across five authority-owned sites off Bradshawgate and Breightmet Street.
The plan was for a 160-home scheme billed as Neighbourhood with Capital&Centric aiming to “re-write the rules on suburban living”, co-founder Tim Heatley said at the time.
Plans were submitted in May 2023 but never determined.
While Trinity Gateway has been binned, the partners are still working together elsewhere in the borough. C&C’s Farnworth development is due to complete soon.
John Moffat, joint managing director at Capital&Centric, said: “We’ve really enjoyed working with Bolton Council on the gamechanging Farnworth Green which is nearly ready to open its doors.
“When it comes to our Bolton Neighbourhood project in the town centre, we share a different vision. As we continue our expansion into new towns and cities across the UK, like Buxton and Wolverhampton, Gateshead, Sheffield, we’ve made the difficult decision not to progress with Bolton town centre while we focus on other regeneration projects.”
Moffat added that an additional three schemes in a trio of new cities would be announced soon.
Capital&Centric’s withdrawal from Trinity Gateway is just the latest setback for the project.
In 2019, Midia secured approval for a 20-storey residential, a multi-storey car park, and an office block on the same sites. However, the project never materialised.
A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “As with many regeneration projects, as circumstances have changed, we have reached a mutual agreement with the developer to explore other options.
“We will now look to identify a new developer partner to bring forward this key strategic site which has enormous potential.
“We would like to thank Capital&Centric for their work on this project, delivery of the transformational Farnworth Green development, and their continued commitment to Bolton through ongoing management and promotion of this site and the town”.
Is there any other major town in the UK that is as hopeless at development projects as Bolton?
A town which is 20 mins away from Manchester has a housing shortage should be drowning in investment. What is Stockport doing that Bolton isn’t?
By Anonymous
What’s going on at Littlewoods? The site has been deserted for months.
By Anonymous
Didn’t C&C do this in Rochdale too?
By Rich X
Can’t they both just be honest and say it’s unviable even with millions of pounds of grant funding…
By John W
Hmmm teasing article. What’s not being said here? Why did the partnership not proceed?
By Anonymous
There’s a theme here Bolton, you lost Muse on a nearby project too. Sort it out please.
By Dave Goole
This is a shame, I’ve not visited the finished Farnworth project yet but the pictures do look stunning, so I was excited they were coming to the town centre of Bolton too.
By Clare Lally
This is disappointing news. I would love to know in what way the visions of the developer and Council differed.
By Anonymous
That’s great news their plans were ****, with what they were trying to build right next to the train station. If there’s anywhere, were density is a must it’s there. There’s tiny towns and villages with higher density than they were proposing, near their stations. Thing is as well they’re not even well designed or unique, their plans were for copy paste 2 and 3 (a handful) story town houses.
By Sam
Another blow for Boltons regeneration. Happened a few times now would be interesting to know the reasons this keeps happening.
By MJ
I think Bolton realised that C&C bring very little apart from a begging bowl. Anyone can design and deliver “cool” schemes if there is a blank cheque! It’s no coincidence that both Muse and C&C haven’t been able to deliver here!
By Marsbar
Another one of those developers councils get worked over by with their buzzwords. Yet they never want to put their hand in their own pockets expecting the land for nothing and the council to carry all of the risk.
By Ashley
Very disappointing but not unsurprising given Bolton Council’s failure over the last 20 years to attract investment into the town centre.
By Nick
Totally agreed with what Anonymous say every word about this development in Bolton. I don’t think the development was good coz the picture of design is completely unacceptable.
By Mr G J Kitchener
C&C real strength is in premature press releases
They aren’t a developer (investing in sites, taking real risks) they are a development manager (taking fees with no risk), with mixed results.
By Anonymous
Some of these comments are a really interesting into the workings of these regeneration developers!
By MJ
I’m glad this scheme has been stopped.. The original plans for the trinity gateway were far supeirier. Cheap and nasty looking house designs would of looked out of place anywhere let alone the major gateway to the town centre. Common sense has prevailed. Both sides of that end of bradshaw gate are a blank canvas for major developments. It was criminal to consider putting cheap town houses there!
By Jay
Bolton seems to be becoming habitual in choosing partnerships that don’t deliver. What is the difference between Bolton and Stockport , the latter appears to be delivering. MDC?
By Jill Tedagain
Never been quite sure what C&C actually bring to the party
By Anonymous
Anonymous 11pm – 03/02 … “investing in sites, taking real risks” – taking huge risk with a low IRR is a poor business model and a sure way to go bankrupt. Not sure we should be encouraging high risk taking for low margins. Fair play to C&C for what they’re doing in challenging areas where build and delivery costs are higher than value achievable (either from sales, or build-to-rent institutional investment).
By John W