Shopping centre run by receiver for three years

The Broadway shopping centre opened in 2015

Bradford's Broadway shopping centre has been run by a Fixed Charge Receiver for more than three years, it has emerged.

The city centre hub was put up for sale last month with a £74m asking price.

A Fixed Charge Receiver is typically appointed by a secured lender, to recover debts owed by a borrower who has defaulted on a loan secured against property or land. It is different to the appointment of administrators or liquidators.

A Broadway spokesperson said the sale would allow the centre to "move forwards with a new owner and continue to be an important part of the City of Bradford retail scene".

The spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service receivers took over the running of the centre in January 2022.

The Broadway's future was raised at a Bradford Council meeting on Tuesday, where it emerged news of its sale took many at the local authority by surprise.

Councillors were told officers found out about the sale after reading an article in a local newspaper, the Telegraph & Argus.

The council had previously ruled out purchasing the shopping centre.

In response, the council's executive said: "At this stage, jobs are not at risk and it would not be the responsibility of the council to engage with people employed in businesses in the shopping centre.

"The centre is being sold as an investment opportunity with a significant yield, and therefore it does not have any impact on the wider city centre regeneration.

"Shopping centres are bought and sold regularly as investments across the country."

The Broadway spokesperson said it had been "business as usual" under the receivers, adding: "There was never the threat of the centre closing or the centre management team seeing a loss of their jobs."

"Through the receivers there has been significant expenditure benefitting the shopping centre," they added.

The history of the shopping centre has been far from plain sailing.

Work on the £260m centre began in 2004 but stopped in 2008 because of the global financial crisis, leaving what some Bradford residents described as a "hole in the ground".

It eventually opened in 2015 and is currently home to 57 stores, according to its website.

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