Wirral shopping centres drop £3m in value
The Pyramids and The Grange in Birkenhead were estimated to be worth £7.5m just one year after the local authority purchased them from Mars Pension Fund for £10.5m.
Wirral Council was forced to disclose the valuations of a series of its site purchases in Birkenhead after a successful appeal by the Liverpool ECHO to the Information Commissioner’s Office, after the local authority refused a Freedom of Information request for the data.
The valuations are dated March 2024. Wirral Council had purchased the shopping centres in May 2023.
The shopping centres have plummeted in value since Mars Pension Fund initially purchased them in 2011 – paying £70m at the time.
Other Wirral Council purchases that decreased in value in March 2024 included the Europa Centre, which was purchased for £8.4m and was listed as being worth £4.1m. The Vue Cinema building in Birkenhead, bought for £6.8m in 2019, has had its worth slashed down to £2.8m.
Many assets that had increased in value from their time of purchase included Newhall Farm, which had been acquired for nothing and was worth £1.4m in March 2024; Arrowe Park Hospital Car Park, which was purchased for £547,000 and was listed as being worth £1.3m; and Wirral Business Centre, which was bought for £780,000 and was listed as being worth £1.6m.
A Wirral Council spokesperson told the ECHO: “In each case the assets are bought with the expectation they will remain in public ownership for a significant period of time, and during this it is accepted that their estimated valuation may vary. However, for many assets, their value to the communities around them and for who uses them is not always reflected in market valuations.”
Wirral had been aggressive in acquiring sites for its plans to regenerate Birkenhead with ambitions at one time to redevelop the town centre alongside Muse to hold 650 homes, a 110-bed hotel, a 300-space car park, and two large office buildings. The two offices, designed by AHR Architects and forward-funded by Canada Life, were completed in 2023.
Wirral’s regeneration programme has come under fire of late as projects have been massively delayed or over budget. Leader Cllr Paula Basnett commissioned an independent review of the division and its failings earlier this year. Place North West acquired an early copy, which was unwavering in its descriptions of the issues facing the council.
Read more: Red flags, ‘spaghetti’, masterplan obsessions: Review explores Wirral’s regen failures
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What happened? During Covid everything seemed to be positive, Government funds were coming in, there was a balance of pragmatism with supporting cultural organisations, there was housing development starting and a nice balance of long term planning. All was calm and whilst working at a neighbouring authority at the time, I was genuinely jealous.
Lots of people left with no explanations (from memory about 7 or 8 key people left including the Director and Deputy).
This is diabolical, the write down in 12 months is bad. I shudder to think what the 2025 valuations will say
By Genuinely Dismayed
The council commissioned a report to look into just that question. We received an early copy and there’s a link to that story in this one, but for ease: https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/red-flags-spaghetti-processes-masterplan-obsessions-review-explores-wirrals-regeneration-failures/
By Julia Hatmaker
The industry knew at the time that the centres were not worth more than 5, possibly 6m. That is before Argos left and Next renegotiated their terms to a peppercorn. Why on earth did they buy it? I remember reading in the press that the Agent said the council had turned it round in record quick time. No wonder
These things are complex and put public resources at risk. They deserve time attention and proper due diligence. The CEX at the time and the Legal and Finance Directors should hang their heads jn shame given the financial position of the Council.
All they have to show for it is some bad CGIs of the Argos. Terrible.
By Tony G
See also: Eccles Shopping Centre ( Salford CC)
By M Portas
Publications received copies of the report before elected members?? Surely not!!
By Piermaster
Still nobody questioning how or why Sefton Council managed to pay £32.5 million for Bootle Strand in 2017, when it was already dead and obsolete. Then millions more on knocking most of it down and the cost of redevelopment when there is little prospect of it ever recovering as anything more than local shops and services/charities that will need to be subsidised.
Stockport bought Merseyway the year before; don’t think they’ve ever made the price paid public, but seem to recall it was nothing like that for a centre in need of updating but still busy. Oldham paid £9.5 million in 2020 for the Spindles, with a decent plan to repurpose the bits no longer needed for shops at relatively low costs. At least Birkenhead still has shops even if there is the need to downsize the retail area.
Sefton on the other hand seems to get away with throwing endless sums into money pits at either end of the borough, with little or no scrutiny.
By Stanley Toad
So is the low value after the fire doors have been done at a cost of 3 million ,or before .Hence the low valuation ?
By Anonymous
@Stanley Toad: Wasn’t it £25m, and didn’t Sefton release figures pre-Covid that it was washing its face with rental etc? Of course, one would then assume that Sefton bought it as a site for future development in order to do what they’re now doing. Much easier to do that when you have control than whatever they may/try to do in Southport where they own next to nothing in the main shopping areas.
By JohnMac
The colossal blunders made by the people who run Birkenhead are crimes against the people of Birkenhead. Has anybody been sacked? My guess is theyre still in their jobs no change there. They should be put on trial. The Pyramids are a disgrace not to mention the market most of them will live in Heswall.
By Dino Carlucci
I think they should knock the whole of birkenhead town center down, because there is nothin there the shops are all closing down slowly and now we call it shutter city, poor town let down by the govenment
By Dave