Should Nottingham's half-finished Broadmarsh Centre be knocked down?

Nottingham residents are worried that the half-demolished shopping centre will remain unfinished

With shopping centre owners Intu having called in administrators, the future of Nottingham's half-demolished Broadmarsh Centre appears bleak.

The announcement Intu - the owner of some of Britain's most high-profile shopping malls - has called in administrators has been held up as a significant illustration of just how precarious the situation on the high street has become in recent months.

But among the list of well-known sites affected - such as Manchester's Trafford Centre and Gateshead's Metro Centre - was one that provoked particular anxiety because of its current state, the Broadmarsh Centre in Nottingham.

Variously described as "a dead whale" and an "open sore", the Broadmarsh was due to undergo a multimillion-pound refurbishment but development has stalled since lockdown and the centre has now closed to shoppers.

"The Broadmarsh redevelopment is a saga that has been going on for about 15 years," said Nelson Blackley. As a retail research associate at Nottingham Business School, he has observed its decline.

"It has been slowly fading away and today it stands a shell, half-demolished."

Work to redevelop the centre stalled during lockdown

He said the city council faced two options - to redevelop the centre as planned, which he believed would cost in the region of £70m, or to demolish what remained and replace it with other facilities or housing.

"There's a dangerous downward spiral that if the Broadmarsh isn't revitalised in the near future, it could have a damaging effect on retail in the rest of the city. The economic impact on Nottingham is huge," he said.

Some residents are in favour of completing the demolition work

The demolition option would be favoured by some Nottingham residents, including members of the city's civic society.

John Rhodes, the society's vice president and a former development director in the construction industry, said: "Of great concern is the prospect of being left with the worst of all situations, the colossal eyesore of an abandoned building site, for an indeterminate length of time."

He said the half-built site could have a detrimental impact on the city's tourist attractions, including the £30m refit of Nottingham Castle and the City of Caves, which has its entrance in the shopping centre.

"It would appear that most of the work carried out so far is that of demolition. We advocate the notion of clearing the site and holding a design competition to explore the opportunities of making the best use of the area."

An artist's impression of what the long-awaited Broadmarsh development was meant to look like

At present, the city council has said it would be progressing with work costing £160m on the area surrounding the 55,000 sq m (590,000 sq ft) shopping centre site, which would include a new college and library premises. And it said it was ongoing dialogue about the Broadmarsh's future.

"We will be seeking information and assurances from the administrators as a matter of urgency about their immediate plans in relation to both the Nottingham centres," said the authority's leader David Mellen, who described Intu's administration as a "major concern".

"At Broadmarsh, good progress was being made on the redevelopment before the global pandemic but unfortunately the retail sector has been particularly badly hit.

"As owners of the land we had for a number of years been seeking to bring about major improvements to what was a badly outdated shopping centre, not fit for a major city in the 21st century. Intu's plans for the centre focussing on leisure as well as retail had been well-received.

"Nottingham people will rightly feel let down. The current state of affairs is hugely disappointing but we will work to find a way forward."

However, the leader of the Conservative opposition, Andrew Rule, said Intu's administration marked "a grave turning point".

"Given the current condition of the site, it seems highly unlikely that construction will resume for the foreseeable future," he said. "I would find it unlikely that the administrators would take on the fit out of Broadmarsh in its current condition."

The history of Broadmarsh

The shopping centre as it looked in 1998

• In Victorian times the Broad Marsh area consisted of overcrowded slums. However, when medieval streets were cleared to make way for a brutalist 1970s shopping centre, there was an outcry

• As long ago as 2002, plans were approved to redevelop the centre. However, the project was never progressed under previous owners Westfield and in 2011 the site was bought by Intu, which owned Nottingham's more successful Victoria Centre

• In 2015, plans were submitted by Intu to turn the area into a "leisure destination" with a multi-screen cinema, more places to eat and a roofed "street scene" to revitalise the area

• Work began in 2018 but stopped at the beginning of lockdown and was never resumed.

Tim Garratt, chairman at commercial property consultancy Innes England, called on the authority to see the stalled project as an opportunity.

"The city council holds the freehold on this asset, and it is an asset," he said. "It should be the gateway to the city from the south.

"It is a chance for Nottingham to take back control of it and people should be allowed to have their say on what happens.

"The city council needs to step up to the plate."

Meanwhile, Intu's operating centres - including Nottingham's other site, the Victoria Centre, are set to stay open under administrators KPMG.

As to the future of the unloved Broadmarsh, Mr Blackley said: "If the council is unable to reach a decision, the sad reality is that the site will remain mothballed. If that is the case, it will significantly damage Nottingham."