Sainsbury’s offloads 12-acre Thornton site
Liverpool-based Promenade Estates has purchased the brownfield site on Fleetwood Road from the supermarket giant for an unspecified mixed-use development.
The £2m acquisition follows a series of investments that Promenade has made in former industrial sites across St Helens, Ellesmere Port and Widnes as part of its strategy away from purely commercial development into housing-led schemes. The acquisitions have the capacity to deliver more than 2,000 new homes, according to the developer.
The 11.86 site is on Fleetwood Road in Thornton Cleveleys and has prior planning consent for a supermarket store that would have been developed by Sainsbury’s as the former owner. The site is now highlighted in Wyre Council’s local plan for a mix of uses including residential and neighbourhood retail space.
The site has been bought unconditionally and Promenade has had informal yet “productive” discussions with the local authority about possible future uses, according to the company’s managing director Dan Hynd.
“This is a rapidly-growing and popular area with good schools,” he said. “The site fits well with our desire to work with local authorities to help them meet their housing targets and there is scope for some neighbourhood retail provision, too.
“We hope with our partners to begin consulting on possible uses for the site as soon as possible,” he added.
Promenade bought the site in conjunction with land promotion agency BXB Land Solutions. Gary Goodman, land and planning director at BXB, said: “This is the latest in a number of joint projects with Promenade and I’m delighted to get the deal over the line.
“We’ll be deploying our in-house planning and remediation skills to bring the site forward and work is already underway in the background so that we can hit the ground running.”
Meanwhile, Promenade is seeking similar opportunities as it pursues regional growth, said its chairman Peter Hynd.
“We retain a substantial interest in further acquisition of brownfield land in the North West and are not cowed by any remediation challenges such sites may pose.”
Colliers International was the sales agents for the vendor, while Bermans acted for Promenade.
Perhaps if they used their intelligence instead of greed they’d know this area is saturated with housing over developed and poorly served – it’s not housing we need it’s green fields
By Anonymous
Perhaps if @Anonymous read Wyre’s local plan (the result of a lengthy process of consultation and democratic scrutiny) they’d understand that the site is allocated for mixed development and was previously consented for a supermarket.
Promenade is not therefore being ‘greedy’ – it’s responding to the local authority’s statutorily tested and stated needs.
By Sceptical
They mention quite rightly the good schools, shame they want to flood them with more pupils, then they’ll be not so good schools with massive parking problems etc etc.
By Steve
Do they realise that there is only one road in and out of there, to anywhere. It is already a nightmare and will only get worse. Cannot build anymore roads to the geographic nature of the Fylde coast, ie river and sea boundaries.
By K walker