Swindon Brunel Centre shops relocating to make room for tower blocks

The towers will contain nearly 300 flats if planning permission is granted

Traders at a Swindon shopping centre are being helped to find alternative premises so that it can be partially redeveloped.

FI Real Estate Management owns the Brunel Centre in the heart of the town and wants to move some tenants out ahead of a plans to build two tower blocks containing nearly 300 flats.

It is also not renewing leases for tenants in that section of the centre.

Swindon Borough Council has yet to grant permission for the plans.

The company wants to build the tower blocks on the northern half of the centre to the north of Canal Walk, next to the David Murray John tower, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Tenants in part of the shopping centre are being helped to move by the owners

Under the plans, the taller of the two towers would contain 158 one and two-bedroom flats, and the smaller tower would have 132.

Shops, restaurants and bars would be located at its base with a garden above the first-floor leisure space, lounge area, private dining, meeting rooms and co-working spaces.

A spokesperson for FI Real Estate Management said it had a "long-standing commitment to Swindon".

A formal application for planning consent was submitted in October 2019

"Most recently, we have been working with Swindon council, our tenants and the local community to explore ways we can enhance the future potential of the town centre.

"As part of these plans we have been helping Brunel tenants to achieve their own growth objectives by relocating to more fit-for-purpose units elsewhere within the centre or the town as a whole," they added.

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The centre's northern half is more sparsely populated than the rest of the centre, with an occupancy rate of under 50%.

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