It's a big day for Hammerson today. Today it's revised plans for Eastgate Quarter, the massive shopping centre it has planned in Leeds, go in front of the planning committee.
There would be major upset in the Yorkshire capital if the scheme got turned down but that's not what's going to trouble property folk. The clock is ticking for Hammerson to get moving, and many want to know the when, not the what, about this scheme.
In a video interview with the Business Desk yesterday Hammerson's leaders said: "The fact we have invested what we have during the economic downturn I think is a huge sign of our commitment when you look up and down the UK at the number of schemes in abeyance.We have carried on and the reason we have carried on is that we believe our scheme is fundamentally well conceived, the investment we've made in the planning application is a good sign of that, we are doing everything we can to move the scheme forward."
Hammerson is walking down a fine line here. Its 11 years since former owners of the entire site Town Centre Securities initially put in a planning application for Eastgate and over eight since Hammerson announced it was in talks with Selfridges for the scheme.Nobody's going to blame Hammerson for going steady over the past few years but not many would call that swift or say it's doing everything it could.
It continues. "We want to get our permission and our building permits as quickly as possible so we can start as quickly as possible."
Nothing says commitment like an actual date, or better still pop a crane on the horizon.
Related posts:
Leeds launch second bid for £850m regional growth fund
Land Sec's Trinity Leeds: progress pics
Hammerson's Eastgate Quarter Leeds: fly through video
Picture by Earls37a on Flickr
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