Wilson Bowden submits £200m Macclesfield plans
Wilson Bowden Developments has submitted the long-awaited planning applications for the £200m mixed-use redevelopment of Macclesfield town centre.
The developer's outline and part-detailed applications seek consent for 500,000 sq ft gross of retail, leisure, residential, offices and community space on an area from Castle Street to Park Green, bounded by Mill Street and Churchill Way.
An 80,000 sq ft Debenhams department store will anchor the project, alongside a cinema on Churchill Way, a community hall and a new shopping street linking the existing Grosvenor Centre to the new Town Square.
Cllr Jamie Macrae, head of the Town Centre Development Advisory Panel for the council, said: "We may have taken longer than anticipated in revising the masterplan but the progress has not compromised the timetable. The developers are due to start on site in 2011 and the good news is that the changes will result in reduced construction time."
Wilson Bowden was appointed as preferred developer in 2005. Changes to the original masterplan include a greater focus on leisure uses, saving small units in Dukes Court and relocating the cinema to a more central site facing the new square.
A 16-week decision period, including public consultation, will now begin.
Wilson Bowden also recently signed a development agreement with Vale Royal council over its Barons Quay scheme in Northwich. The agreement comes ahead of the creation of the new unitary authorities for East and West Cheshire.
