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It's as if Christmas has come early for developer McAleer & Rushe.

Bradford city council has agreed to provide £6m to bridge the funding gap at the developer's £45m mixed-use Southgate scheme in the city centre.

As reported in EG last month, the developer went cap in hand to the council for extra cash after its funders, Bank of Scotland in Ireland, said it would only provide 75% of development costs on condition that the developer secures and spends the remaining 25% of costs first. And this was despite the developer securing a pre-let for the entire 117,000 sq ft office element and Jury's Inn as the hotel operator.

But the clinking of champagne glasses may not last long, as a gift this is not. The developer will need to have paid back the £6m, with interest, by the time the project is completed in October next year, which is when Provident Financial, wants to move into its new offices.

And with the council already spending £10m on Bradford's City Park and mirror pool water feature at a time when local authority finances are already under pressure, the council will no doubt be feeling that this repayment date can't come soon enough.

 

It's another double Focus in this week's mag with Yorkshire and our continued trip around the M25.

Bradford: While in the city interviewing for this week's Bradford feature, I picked up that BBC Inside Out had been out and about filming for a documentary about the city's regeneration. Not to be outdone I've put together my own short film which walks around some of the major regeneration sites. The city still has many hurdles to clamber over. McAleer and Rushe's has yet to secure financing for its 100% prelet Southgate scheme, but plans for the council's City Park seem ready to progress. You can read an indepth analysis in my feature this week.

Retail: Retail regeneration is a dirty word in any county at the moment, but Yorkshire's  had more than its fair share of stalled projects. Nadia Elghamry looks at the latest from Trinity Walk in Wakefield and how Hammerson are turning to TIFs to try and get its Sevenstone scheme in Sheffield back on track.

Property investors in Bradford are being given the rare opportunity to make an investment on a dead-cert property.

The former mortuary in the Yorkshire city is being put up for auction next month with a guide price of £80, 000 to £100, 000. It's full listing is here.

According to The Telegraph and Argus auctioneers Pugh & Company believe it will become a nightclub or a bar - presumably for anyone in need of a stiff drink. We've heard that the pub business is dead but this may be taking this too far.

And it's not the only unusual property to pop up for sale this week. A former Prisoner of War camp in County Durham is being sold on eBay. The ancient monument was turned into a tourist attraction in 2004 but its owners can no longer afford to complete its restoration.

With a guide price of £900, 000 the one acre site has planning permission for 13 holiday homes and comes complete with an original theatre and huts featuring prisoners wall paintings. Lovely I'm sure if you are into that sort of thing.

Picture of toe tag by a.drian from Flickr used under a Creative Commons license

You've got to hand it to Allied London's Mike Ingall. The force behind Manchester's 4.6m sq ft Spinningfields came to the juddering realisation recently that it might have made some mistakes in its letting strategy for its restaurant space.

But rather than cover this with bluster and apply the sticking plaster of PR Ingall gives David Thame a frank and disarmingly honest account in this week's Focus of what went wrong and how they are going to put it right.

Meanwhile, Daniel Cunningham turns his attention to the local office and industrial market. Exclusive research compiled for EG by Kellie Solutions shows just how dramatic the slowdown in development has been in the city. Nearly 850, 000 sq ft has ground to a halt. In the industrial Segro by buying Brixton Estates has become the dominant player in the North West, Daniel looks at what their strategy might be.

Picture from Coxy on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons license.

A PR sent me this picture relating to a feature I'm writing on Herefordshire. It's The Sportsman pub in Hereford and illustrates a trend of pubs coming onto the market in the area, proving there are still investment deals, carrying solid development opportunities, to be done.