Developer drums up support for Sale town centre overhaul

The owners of The Square shopping centre have launched a lettings drive and have invited public feedback ahead of a major overhaul of the site in Sale town centre, set to include 202 apartments, restaurants, and a cinema.

Working with design agency Studio DBD, Maloneview has launched a campaign to invite public feedback into the future of The Square, which is set to see a major transformation.

This campaign, dubbed We Are Open, will be used by The Square’s letting agents, Sixteen, to attract tenants to the existing shopping centre, while also gathering public views on what sort of uses residents would like to see at the site, with redevelopment still some months away.

Under a planning application approved in March this year, the redevelopment will include a partial demolition of the existing shopping centre, and replacing it with a six-screen cinema, up to 37,000 sq ft of retail and leisure over nine units; three of these will be in the cinema building, and six more will be within a new retail terrace. SimpsonHaugh is the architect, while Exterior Architecture has worked on the public realm design.

The 202 homes will be split across two blocks of 15 and 12 storeys, along with 18 townhouses along the site’s Sibson Road frontage. The 104,000 sq ft car park will include 337 spaces.

New areas of public space are proposed to provide a route between Town Square and Sibson Road, while the cinema will also benefit from additional public realm. Some of the units in The Square, including WH Smith and Wilkinsons will be retained and enhanced with new facades.

Meanwhile uses have been brought forward ahead of the redevelopment, including a pop-up initiative at the east side of The Square in an effort to stimulate activity while the redevelopment plans are finalised.

Proposals for The Square have been in the pipeline for a number of years with an initial round of public consultation taking place in November 2017.

Michael Brown of Maloneview said: “We Are Open is a visual campaign that showcases the positivity and changes that are happening within the community of Sale, right now and in the years to come.  We want the local community to be part of the process and that’s why we are asking for their feedback, which we will take on board to help create a vibrant town centre that Sale residents can be proud of.”

Dave Sedgwick, owner of Studio DBD, added: “The idea is to communicate three messages; the shops are open and it’s business as usual, the owners of The Square are open to ideas and conversations with the local community and finally, we will be opening up The Square in the near future and we want exciting new traders to come and join us.”

Nicola Harrington of Sixteen Lettings said: “We know that Sale has huge potential, and now We Are Open Sale is helping us to sell our vision to aspirational future traders. It has created the buzz we needed and now people, whether it’s residents, existing traders or new businesses can clearly see the direction we are going in and want to part of it.”