Cumberland looks to kickstart £85m Citadels refresh
Council members will vote next week on granting the University of Cumbria a £12m loan and a 125-year lease at peppercorn rent of properties off English Street – a move that should defrost the glacial pace of the mammoth project.
University of Cumbria has been flirting with moving its main campus to Carlisle’s city centre for more than five years, with planning permission granted in 2022 for the core scheme. Adjustments to phasing and design were signed off by the council in May.
Contractors have come and gone, with Sir Robert McAlpine walking away from the project in 2024 and GRAHAM taking the scheme forward.
The English Street part of the Citadels redevelopment will be the first to progress. Credit: via planning documents
The project
A new home for the University of Cumbria – that’s the goal of the scheme, which ultimately will liven up the four-acre site. Estimated benefits of bringing the university into the city centre from its east-Carlisle home include an extra 1,060 students a year by 2048 and an increase in footfall in the city centre by up to 11,300 people per weekday.
The first phase of the scheme has been priced at £85m, according to council documents. It would see 86,100 sq ft of teaching and support space delivered on the four-acre historic Citadels site in the heart of Carlisle. This will mostly take place on the part of the site fronting English Street, including the former Woolworth’s Building.
This phase also includes the development of the 8,600 sq ft Carlisle Business Exchange, a start-up hub with coworking and flex office space. There would also be a café and considerable public realm changes. Essential work and surveys would be conducted in the historic Citadels, which will be the subject of later phases.
Demolition work to start the development is already underway and more than £1m of asbestos has been removed.
DAY is leading the design process of the university campus, with DPP heading up planning. Also on the team are Curtins and Urban Green. You can track all the applications by searching reference 22/0261 on Cumberland Council’s planning portal.
The project includes extensive public realm improvements. Credit: via planning documents
The financial picture
With the first phase rocking a £85m price tag, the university has required considerable help to get the scheme off the ground.
Through the government’s Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, the project has secured £58m. Another £5.2m is coming from the Carlisle Town Fund award. The university itself is putting up £3.5m.
It is Cumberland Council’s financial additions that are the subject of next week’s special council meeting. These include a £12m loan and an agreement to lease land at English Street at a peppercorn rent for 125 years. The council will also deliberate on whether to give the university the option to acquire the freehold of the Crown Court Building citadel.
Even with those deals, the scheme will face a shortfall of more than £6m. Council documents tease that a strategy for closing this gap is in place, but offer little detail.
The leasehold for the land does come with strings. It would only be granted if the university can secure the full amount of funding required for the project and appoint a main contractor for the building scheme – GRAHAM so far is just focussed on enabling works.
The freehold option would only be granted if the university can prove it can fund the refurbishment of the Crown Court Building in the next 10 years.
Regarding the second citadel – the Nisi Prius Citadel – the university and council are working with the National Lottery Heritage Fund to drafts plans for its reuse.
