Hammerson to present revised proposals for Whitgift Centre
HAMMERSON will this week reveal revised plans for the redevelopment of Croydon’s Whitgift Centre, stepping up its battle with rival Westfield over the highly-contested shopping mall.
The developer will return to Croydon council’s strategic planning committee with amended proposals for the tired 1960s mall on Thursday before submitting a planning application in December.
Westfield submitted its planning application for the site last month.
The two firms are vying for the right to develop the mall after a split between the site’s owners over who should be appointed to build at the neglected site.
Hammerson, which has formed the Croydon Alliance with the Whitgift Centre’s leaseholders Royal London Asset Management and IBRC Assurance, plans to transform the 1.5m square foot Whitgift Centre into a three-level mall. It plans on linking the centre to its neighbouring Centrale scheme, renaming the combined site the Whitgift Quarter.
Westfield, which has signed an exclusive development agreement with the site’s freeholder the Whitgift Foundation, wants to create a retail and leisure scheme with four residential towers.
If both schemes are approved, the deadlock would have to be resolved either by the council or the centre’s owners. The firms are also eyeing the potential sale of a loan by the Irish owners which could give one of them majority control of the shopping centre.