Official Leicester Thread

[inquisitor57]

I looked for the old thread but I couldn't seem to find it. Now that I'm in Manchester I'll have to rely on this website to tell me about the current development situation in Leicester.

Come on guys, I need your help!

[unfrequented]

Well the masterplan is in place to regenerate Leicester over the next 10-15 years, http://www.leicesterregeneration.co.uk/ has most of the details with more illustrations and news on thisisleicestershire

Overview of the plans;



At the moment the new £48 million Peforming Arts Centre is underway as part of the new Cultural Quarter



and the Leicester Mercury building is getting patched up.


...

[dinp]

Whats happening to the towers near the railway station?

[bobthebuilder]

what about the shires extension??is that starting soon???

[AndrewC]

Originally Posted by dinp

Whats happening to the towers near the railway station?

Thats an awful building.

In fact nothing near the station has ever tempted me to get off the train and have a look around..

[hellolazyness]

Its tragic. Leicester is, and pretty much always has been an ugly town I have been there countless times - so its not undue bias lol.

[inquisitor57]

I think thats a little unfair. At eye level, yes, it is quite ugly, however if you look above the generic shop fronts to the buildings above you'll see that many of them are actually quite beautiful. Its just a shame that the city seems to be so unloved and uncared for. When I look at all the cities that it is comparable to or aspiring to be like, it has no where near the amount of high quality developments.

[ranny fash]

i see leicester as a pretty nice place. it suffers from being seen as "bland", because it's in the midlands and isn't particularly famous. it just gets overlooked, which is a bit unfortunate really.

[jrawle]

The Leicester Regeneration Company (LRC) wants to demolish St George's Tower (the second tallest in the city) to make way for the "New Business Quarter" (NBQ), where buildings would be limited to five storeys. The building has been empty for more than five years, having previously been BT's regional headquarters.

Three years ago, the owners of the building, Magnet Properties, gained planning permission to convert the building for mixed use, and it looks like that work is finally starting! There was an article in the Leicester Mercury yesterday about them putting up a huge hoarding having a go at the LRC.

Originally, the LRC's plans included re-aligning the ring road so that the station woud not be cut off from the city centre. The NBQ would then have been inslude that area too. But that plan's now been scrapped because there's no money for moving the road.

I think doing up St Georges Tower is a much better plan as it means Leicester keeps its skyline. Plus, it shoud be finished in 18 months' time! The LRC's plan would take many years as it also involves demolishing the 16-storey residential Elizabeth House - and re-housing all its residents. They've been told the timescale is one of tens of years.

Here's the story from the Mercury (sadly, the picture in the online version is so small you can't read the hoardings):

HOARDINGS HITTING OUT AT LRC BOSSES
BY IAN GRIFFIN
10:30 - 10 December 2005

The owner of a landmark city centre building has erected two huge hoardings criticising regeneration bosses.

The boards, on the side of St George's Tower, in St George's Way, appear to hit out at Leicester Regeneration Company (LRC) for not backing the developer's plans for the site.

Magnet Property Investments, which has planning consent to transform the 22-storey building into flats, offices, shops and a hotel, says it has begun a £33 million redevelopment project.

However, the LRC wants to see the disused building demolished to make way for a £100 million office development.

The hoardings, which are about 15ft tall, overlook St George's Way and Charles Street. They read: "Magnet Property Investments Ltd, 400,000sq ft of regeneration for Leicester, no thanks to Leicester Regeneration Ltd."

John Nicholls, chief executive of LRC, the public/private sector group overseeing the city's £1 billion revamp over the next decade, said: "This reflects the fundamental difference of opinion between the owner and LRC and the city council of what that site should be used for.

"Our very clear view is that this is not the development which Leicester needs.

"It blocks the prospect of several thousand new jobs in the new business quarter."

Mr Nicholls said the "confrontational style" of the signs contrasted with the attitude of other city centre developers, such as those behind the development of the former Charles Street police station.

When the Leicester Mercury contacted the owner of Magnet Property, Amir Zarbafi, yesterday he would only say: "The hoardings speak for themselves."

When asked to comment further he ended the call.

Despite granting planning consent to Magnet almost three years ago, Leicester City Council has not ruled out using its powers to forcibly buy the site to make way for a new office development.

City council regeneration spokesman Roman Scuplak acknowledged that Mr Zarbafi had "a gripe" with the city's regeneration chiefs.

He said: "As far as I know the hoardings do not break planning rules."

Workmen have been at the St George's site for the past month. The 269ft tall building was abandoned by BT five years ago.

A press release issued by Mr Zarbafi said contractors have begun a £33 million redevelopment of the site. The statement said the scheme would see the creation of 150,000sq ft of office space. It also said leisure and retail units, apartments and a hotel would be created.

In the statement, Mr Zarbafi said: "We think this represents an exciting opportunity to change the face of Leicester and create a magnificent mixed-use building that the whole city will be proud of."

As for blocking the NBQ, there's still plenty of room for more office buildings and a new station when they relocate the Royal Mail depot and station car park. Any existing plans already have to change because of the ring road.

Here's what it will look like when it's finished:

(See Pettifer Construction press release)

And what it looks like now:

[dinp]

Woo Hoo - i'm glad they're keeping the tower, as ugly as it is now, that rendering confirms what I thought all along - that it COULD look good when done up.

This is good news indeed.

[Xtremegamer]

Great news! Leicester seems to be booming with developments compared to just a few years ago. It's a shame that we are so behind, there is so much potential. Just knock down or reclad all those ugly disused buildings... A few high-quality mid rise developments wouldn't go amiss either.

I'm sure Leicester will get its day... a developer is going to come along and realise the potential, and want to build the city's tallest tower. It's just a matter of time.

[Accura4Matalan]

That tower reclad isnt bad, but it could be so much better. One way would be to do what they are doing with Manchester's CIS and put solar panels on the core.

[unfrequented]

Latest news is that Thames tower is getting a refurbishment with work starting in March!

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.u...=sidebarsearch

Imagine living in the city centre but waking up to a breathtaking view of the countryside each morning.

One of Leicester's tallest buildings is to be converted into flats, some of which will have views over the rolling hills of Bradgate Park and Charnwood Forest.

The top 14 storeys of the 16-storey, 190ft Thames Tower, in Burleys Way, are to be converted into 112 apartments, each with a balcony.

Top-floor residents will be able to take in views of up to 10 miles, including Old John tower, in Bradgate Park.

A roof garden will be created on top of a renovated two-storey base building, which will house offices and shops.

Thames tower now;



A few illustrations i managed to find on the net;

[bobthebuilder]

any news on the shires shopping extension

[unfrequented]

Prescott approved the purchase of land needed for the shires extension last month, so as far as I know its all due to kick off early next year.

http://www.theshires.co.uk/extension.shtm

The New Shires Development : Key Facts

* A £350 million investment by The Shires Limited Partnership – a joint venture between Hammerson plc (60%) and Hermes (40%).
* A new 22,000 m2 four-level John Lewis department store.
* Two existing department stores: Debenhams and House of Fraser.
* 30,000 m2 of new retail accommodation on two levels comprising five additional major stores and 40 mall retail units.
* 80 existing mall retail units on two levels.
* A 7,000 m2 ‘Cinema de Lux’ multiplex cinema.
* 6,000 m2 of new cafés and restaurants.
* Two new public squares.
* 118 apartments.
* A new 2,000 space multi-storey shoppers car park bringing the total available parking at the Shires to 3,000 spaces.
* A new pedestrian bridge linking the new development to the scheme’s car park.
* A new bus interchange adjacent to The Shires.
* A comprehensive refurbishment of the existing Shires shopping centre.
* Current catchment population of 1.6 million.
* Catchment population rising to 2.09 million on completion of the scheme due to the increased retail offer.
* £5.5 billion available retail spend within the extended catchment area

[inquisitor57]

The reclad of the Thames tower looks really great, I certainly hope they can pull it off. Has anyone got any construction photos of the new developmnents around town (ie, on the canals etc), its been a while so I imagine they should be looking pretty good by now.

[jrawle]

Originally Posted by dinp

Woo Hoo - i'm glad they're keeping the tower, as ugly as it is now, that rendering confirms what I thought all along - that it COULD look good when done up.

This is good news indeed.

Let's not speak too soon. The LRC and the City Council would still very much like to see St George's Tower demolished. However, as redevelopment gets under way, it seems increasingly unlikely that they could justify a CPO (particularly as they've been talking about it for years already!) - even less likely once the developers have spent £33 million on it. I can't see the EMDA paying them that much compensation!

It's not the tower itself that's so ugly, but the complex of concrete buildings behind it that occupy most of the site. From the rendering, it seems that this will be completely hidden under new cladding, while the tower retains many of its original architectural features (which are actually praised in the Council's own publication The Quality of Leicester!)

[Xtremegamer]

Originally Posted by inquisitor57

The reclad of the Thames tower looks really great, I certainly hope they can pull it off. Has anyone got any construction photos of the new developmnents around town (ie, on the canals etc), its been a while so I imagine they should be looking pretty good by now.

I will try to get some soon (how hard can it be trecking round town in the freezing cold? )

The developments around the canals look exceptionally good... the one near the Holiday Inn is very imposing.

[inquisitor57]

Thats the massive one with the curvey roof isn't it?
Last time I saw it it was looking very imposing and impressive.

[jrawle]

I found some more information on another site saying exactly what they are doing:

Scheme comprises conversion to form car parking at levels 1/2, level 3 for retail, financial and restaurant, levels 4-7 call centre and hotel, level 8 student accommodation and hotel, levels 9-10 for student accommodation, levels 11-13 for hotel and levels 14-22 for student accommodation. Associated works include access, sewer systems, infrastructure, enabling, landscaping works and service engineering.

Construction:

Construction to include terracotta clay panel walls, with glazing, marble and curtain walling, flat roof, powder coated aluminium framed windows, six passenger lifts, goods lift, firemans lift, escalator lift.

http://www.glenigan.com/news/asp/pro...=TP99098516908


And what the contractors have to say about it (my emphasis):

Pettifer Construction has been awarded an £18m project to convert the St. George's Tower in Leicester into a prestigious mixed-use scheme that will bring both employment opportunities and city living apartments to the city.

Situated right in the heart of Leicester, Pettifer Construction will be on site for 88 weeks where it will transform the former BT Tower into retail, commercial and residential units.

Bob Macpherson, director of Pettifer Construction says that this looks set to become one of the city's most prominent landmarks in terms of combined retail and residential schemes.

He commented: "This project will see our team enhance Leicester's rapidly developing skyline even further by adding new outlets and luxury apartments.

"We're very pleased to have won this - our biggest ever contract - and we're looking forward to starting work on this scheme in the St George's regeneration area."

http://www.freemansnews.com/mainstory.asp?3214222

I can see a big crane next to the tower. Sometime soon I'll go down with my camera and see what's going on there.