Setback for Winter Gardens development over viability issues

Projects worth hundreds of millions of pounds planned through the part BCP Council-owned Bournemouth Development Company are having to be tweaked to respond to property demands which have changed over the last year.

The company’s latest business plan warns progress has slowed on the Winter Gardens and Cotlands developments with work on neither expected for at least a year.

Planning permission has already been granted for the £150 million Winter Gardens development but a report due to be considered by BCP Council’s cabinet says these are now being revised.

Bournemouth Development Company – the council’s partnership now with Muse Developments, which is still a part of Morgan Sindall – has drawn up plans to redevelop several car parks in Bournemouth.

It has also considered proposals for Chapel Lane in Poole but these have been put on hold for legal advice.

The two most significant projects are Winter Gardens and Cotlands but changes brought about by the pandemic have delayed their progression.

“Winter Gardens continues to be the priority project with the team working with the council to address viability issues arising from lost value, in particular Covid-19 related operational impacts upon the leisure and restaurants markets,” its business plan says.

It adds that this has led to a “loss of revenue and investor sentiment” and that these parts of the development are “more risky”.

Tweaks to the approved scheme are expected to be required but the plan says construction could start in the second half of 2022.

The company said the Cotlands development “has not progressed at the pace we had hoped” and that this is due to changes in demand for office space but a planning application is expected to be submitted in the middle of next year.

Work on developments at the Central, Eden Glen and Pavilion Gardens car parks will not move forward until an agreement is reached with the council for the reprovision of public parking.