Tameside buys Ladysmith Shopping Centre
Supported by a loan from GMCA’s Good Growth Fund, the council has completed the acquisition of the 151,000 sq ft Ashton-under-Lyne retail hub.
The move, said Tameside, marks a significant milestone in the long-term regeneration of the town centre, forming a central part of a land assembly strategy that will underpin future regeneration aspirations.
Along with shopping centres in FGreat Yarmouth and Sutton-in-Ashfield, Ladysmith was one of three assets owned by hedge fund Chenavari that went into receivership with Deloitte in December 2020.
Comprising 53 units, the centre had been managed by NewRiver Retail under an asset management mandate. NewRiver will be retained, as will managing agent Ashdown Phillips.
Tameside said that the acquisition, for an undisclosed fee, will provide stability to the town centre, and long-term investment into the shopping centre. The council will operate and manage the Ladysmith Shopping Centre as normal, while a long-term masterplan is developed via engagement with the centre’s current retail and leisure occupiers.
The 151,502 sq ft shopping centre is located centrally in Ashton town centre, adjacent to the grade two-listed town hall.
The centre opens directly onto the recently transformed Market Square, a £10.8m investment by Tameside Council.
Nicola Elsworth, director of strategic growth at Tameside Council, said: “Bringing Ladysmith into public ownership is a pivotal moment for Ashton. It gives us the ability to shape one of the town centre’s most important sites, delivering the homes, investment and hospitality this community deserves.
“Combined with the market transformation, the Town Hall restoration plans and the wider public realm improvements already underway, we are building a town centre that locals can genuinely be proud of.”
Deborah McLaughlin, chair of Ashton Mayoral Development Zone, said: “The acquisition of the Ladysmith is exactly the kind of strategic move the Ashton Mayoral Development Zone was created to support.
“Bringing this site into public ownership connects directly to our borough-wide growth ambitions and demonstrates how the public sector can act decisively to create the conditions for private investment. Ashton is increasingly on the radar of investors and developers, and this sends a clear signal that our vision is being realised.”
The Ashton Mayoral Development Zone was established in 2024 by GM Mayor Andy Burnham. Along with Stalybridge, Ashton is also in line for a mayoral development corporation that would boost regeneration powers.
A loan to buy a shopping centre no doubt ran into the ground by its previous owner.
By Anonymous
Yes I wonder how much that cost tameside council no doubt another 20 million where do they find all these resources for for ashton
By Anonymous
If TMBC said how much they had paid, we’d know whether it was a good deal for taxpayers or not; there’s really no need for blanket commercial confidentiality justifications in cases like this.
It may well be they’ve picked up a distressed asset with strategic benefits cheaply and delivered good value, or it may be they’ve been taken to the cleaners like Sefton when it paid £30 million for Bootle Strand. It’s worth understanding which.
By Rotringer
10 million for a stranded asset.
By Anonymous
Provided TMBC didn’t pay through the nose this is a really smart move. They are already investing in the adjacent Market and St.Petersfield so this is a great opportunity.
By Mis-manager
So are they going to buy Greenside Lane Shopping Centre Droylsden I don’t think so.
By Michael Carney
No wonder their keep putting bills up
By Anonymous
Fantastic news. Keeping any raised revenue in the town.
Good call TMBC
By Joanne
To what end do the public who pay council tax benefit from this sale? Every year council tax goes up along with every other utility EVERYONE needs. Bedroom tax, brown bin fees, what will be invented next to get their money back? You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear cones to mind when I think of the “ improved” up coming market ground
By Anonymous
When is it Hydes turn and what happened to our memorial for our Champ.
By Pat
If public money is used for an acquisition surely the public should decide if it’s a viable purchase what the building plans for the future is and how much it was bought for
By PamelA Ellison
What is the point?
By Anonymous
Well that was the plan, pull it all down and build more flats.
By Anonymous
Hopefully they will now buy the Concorde Suite in Droylsden
By Anonymous
Another waste of tax payers money for a town centre that no goes too. The council waste so much money a typical labour run council
By Ron
Bulldoze. Please.
By AM
it is coming down i was told
By Anonymous
TMBC are NOT property developers & have no experience in this regard. We see other Councils following this path and ending up with egg on their faces as it turns sour. A typical move by a socialist administration that thinks they know better than everyone else. TMBC officers & Councillors don’t have a clue on managing commercial real estate. How many new JOBS has this venture ‘created’? All to put ticks in boxes when they should be aiming to reduce council tax & car parking in town centres to generate more local businesses. This ‘venture’ will end up as the biggest joke in Andy Burnham’s NORTH! TMBC should be scrapped!
By StephenH
Great idea
By Vumla Capemba
When is Droylsden going to benefit from investment from Tameside council. No investment for decades while Ashton Market ground is on its third refurbishment in 15yrs. They have lauded the masterplan for Droylsden fir 2 yrs now…. that’s all it seems to be .. a plan. No action
By Anonymous
Undisclosed amounts of money being spent on Ashton again. What a surprise. Tameside council should look at other areas of the Borough. In Droylsden we are lucky if we get our bins emptied.
By Anonymous
Ashton Town centre is dead, council tax raises of 5% and the the Labour Council wasted money buying charity shops,and port shops
By St Peter's
TMBC “YOU” have one chance to prove the sceptics and critics wrong “DO NOT BLOW IT”.
The town was once vibrant and TMBC over decades oversaw its decline.
Learn from your mistakes, research successful other towns and understand what people want now and also the next generation will want and provide it.
Make Ashton and Tameside a place where the residents can be proud of not embarrassed by.
By Anonymous
More money on Ashton nothing for Droylsden yet again that’s why people from Droylsden voted Reform Tameside council only interested in AUL
By Mike
Ashton market didn’t cost £10.8 million its cost more than that and it’s not even finished, the glass roof won’t be built as the company as gone bust. Just another waste of money from TMBC
By Ashtonion
Some of the comments on here are astounding in how clueless they are. The town centre is a mess and needs massive regeneration to bring it back to life. This is part of that puzzle. But its a long game. Delivering real change doesn’t happen over night. That’s why they’re creating a Mayoral Development Corporation. Look at Stockport as an example of how that’s going. However, that’s been 10 years in the making. People these days expect change overnight. Ashton (and retail in general) has been in decline for 20 years. It won’t change overnight I’m afraid. Have some patience please. No doubt, a new Reform administration will come in a couple years and rip this up and start asking “where are the banks and the M&S”. Get real, the world has moved on. Progress is exactly what they don’t want.
By Anonymous
I go to Bury and see a good town reasonably busy, market still full of stalls most shops still open. In AUL I see boarded up shop’s, a new one every week closing. The market will probably end up with the college or other teens sat on the tables feet on the seats.The cobbles they have put down are unsafe for walking sticks, the only thing missing is the tumble weed but I don’t think we have long to wait for that, joking apart when town centres don’t attract shoppers they die & people’s property’s price within the nearby area’s take a nosedive. When I came to live here 20 years ago the market & town was OK and whilst online shopping hasn’t helped, in my 70s I enjoy walking around a decent shopping centre while I still can so Bury here I come.
By Saddened
Yet again no mention of a Swimming Baths for Ashton-under-Lyne. What a disgrace !
By Anonymous
What a load of rubbish nothing will bring Ashton back to how is used to be. It’s all pound shops and cheap shops nothing worth going into Ashton for
By Anonymous
TMBC should NOT be using Council Taxpayers money for this hair brained scheme; in fact there should be a law to stop any council ’investing’ someone else’s money in an attempt to get a return on investment! I know full well whatever comments are made on here won’t make the slightest bit if difference to this idiotic move! Taxpayers pay TMBC money to be used for council services only! They can’t empty the bins on time never mind seeking a win on the roulette wheel. Bad move all round encourages by a socialist administration that only knows communism. Pity Reform couldn’t take overall control & stop this senseless move!
By Stephenh
What about Hyde? All we have got are umbrellas, two plant pots and an empty mall and indoor market. Ashton always gets the lot. How many times has it been renewed.
By Anonymous
Could the council not have used this undisclosed sum of money towards the repairs to Ashton under Lyne Town Hall and completed one area at a time.There is history in the Museum of the Manchesters’ exhibits which belong in there, it’s a barracks town ! I really want this new outdoor market to work and l do understand why people are so angry about the money previously wasted on a market revamp which was dreadful.The outdoor market was a thriving place and should have been left alone in the first place, hence more money to spend on other things and other towns.Also please note that my name is on this posting as l do not see the point of making comments without a name .
By Ann English