Tag Archives: Hammerson

Revealed: Council’s plan for town centre is 95th-best university

GENE BRODIE, education correspondent, on the increasingly desperate-looking moves to salvage anything from the town centre regeneration Croydon Council’s “cunning plan” to dig the town centre out of the hole created for it by the Whitgift Foundation and Westfield is … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Croydon BID, Croydon College, Croydon Council, Education, Jo Negrini, Planning, Sussex Innovation Centre, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Centrale’s Debenhams to remain closed after lockdown ends

Our demise-of-high-street-retailing correspondent, MT WALLETTE, says that there’s no coming back from the latest hammer blow to the £1.4bn town centre regeneration scheme Coronavirus claimed another victim last night: Debenhams in Croydon. In truth, the department store, which has been … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Debenhams, Gavin Barwell, Jo Negrini, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Three months late, BID hires headhunters to recruit chair

Croydon BID, the organisation made up of some of the town centre’s biggest businesses, has gone into the covid-19 crisis while looking for someone to chair the organisation. As predicted by Inside Croydon, the departure from the Fairfield Halls of … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Croydon BID, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Debenhams administration is another blow to Hammerson

The coronavirus lockdown looks about to claim another casualty, as department store Debenhams announced this morning that it is to call in the financial administrators. It will the second time in a year that Debenhams has gone into administration. The … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Debenhams, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Chancellor is taking an axe to councils’ magic money tree

Croydon Council has more than £1bn of borrowings – half of which has gone on Brick by Brick and the purchase of some commercial properties. Proposals contained in the Budget this week could put an end to that, as KEN … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Bernard Weatherill House, Brick by Brick, Business, Centrale, Colonnades, Croydon Council, Croydon Park Hotel, Croydon parks, Jo Negrini, New Addington South, Planning, Property, Queens Gardens, Simon Hall, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Concrete-coated Brexit is a disaster for Croydon’s Westfield

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Britain’s exit from Europe has played a major part in the collapse of the town’s Westfield scheme, says SIMON SPRAGUE During the General Election campaign in December, I made the perhaps unwise decision to join Twitter. I set … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Central, Mario Creatura, Simon Sprague, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Scaled-down town centre development could take 10 years

MT WALLETTE, our unbuilt shopping malls correspondent, reports on the deep hole that Croydon has got itself into over the aborted Westfield development Croydon Council has allowed itself to be mugged by a couple of multi-national developers, and has handed … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Housing, Jason Perry, Jo Negrini, London-wide issues, Mario Creatura, Paul Scott, Planning, Property, Timothy Godfrey, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Council to debate Westfield after Newman’s pointless meeting

KEN LEE, our Town Hall reporter, on an attempt to block any discussion of the crisis for the town centre at next week’s full council meeting Tony Newman came back from his meeting with Westfield at City Hall yesterday empty-handed … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Jacqueline Harris-Baker, Jo Negrini, Tim Pollard, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Hammerson’s £781m loss points to end of the shopping mall

MT WALLETTE, our unbuilt shopping malls correspondent, on the latest doom-laden annual report from one of the Croydon ‘partners’ Anyone clinging to the faint hope that the publication this morning of Hammerson’s annual report would offer encouragement about the prospects … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

They survived world wars and riots. They can survive Westfield

Leading Croydon businesses, who have been trading for more than 150 years, are angry at the ‘complete dereliction of duty, mismanagement and incompetence in every single aspect’ over the non-development of the town centre. And they offer some prospect of … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, Crime, Croydon 8/8, Croydon Council, Hewitts, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hammerson’s annual report could be bad news for Croydon

BARRATT HOLMES, our over-development correspondent, has been skimming through the trade press and found a damning verdict on the prospects for Croydon town centre One of the best-read commentators on the commercial property market says that he cannot ever see … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, John Burton, Planning, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Wait-field: now Labour council leader Newman calls it a ‘mess’

Our Town Hall reporter, KEN LEE, on the rancour and recriminations between the borough’s third-rate politicians, desperately trying to pass the buck over the stalled £1.4bn supermall scheme, as City Hall is forced to step in to try to salvage … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Gavin Barwell, Jo Negrini, Jules Pipe, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Planning, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Westfield scale down plans, leaving Croydon a ‘dead duckling’

A day early, Croydon has suffered a Valentine’s Day massacre, as the French owners of Westfield announced a multi-billion reshaping of their investment plans – with their Croydon project described as a “£1.5billion dead duckling”. And it seems Croydon Council … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Westfield now holding Croydon to ransom over business rates

Just how big a bribe, a “bung” if you prefer, of public cash is it going to take to get Westfield and their supermall partners to finally get to work on their Barwell-inspired, Tory-backed shopping centre scheme in Croydon Town … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Sarah Jones MP, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Westfield ‘review’ drags on as retail has worst year since 1995

Our retailing correspondent MT WALETTE can find no good news for the nation’s high streets – which is very bad news for Croydon’s retail-led town centre ‘regeneration’ Last year was the worst on record for retailing in this country, with … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, CPO, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Westfield letter that Tony Newman didn’t want you to see

Croydon Council tried to cover-up a letter from the CEO of Westfield to the council leader that warned of “the deep structural changes currently facing retailers… illustrated by the growing number of bankruptcies, CVAs and retailers announcing declining financial results”. … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, CPO, Croydon Council, Planning, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

What the election means for Croydon, Westfield and St Helier

After a long and sleepless night, our political editor WALTER CONXITE sifts through the wreckage of the General Election, and what it might mean for Croydon, and Sutton The fourth General Election since 2010 is significant because it is the … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", 2019 General Election, Adult Social Care, Boris Johnson, Brick by Brick, Centrale, Children's Services, Chris Philp MP, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Croydon South, Elliot Colburn, Health, Housing, Jo Negrini, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mario Creatura, Mayday Hospital, Mayor of London, Neil Garratt, Paul Scott, Paul Scully MP, Sadiq Khan, Sarah Jones MP, Shaun Bailey, St Helier Hospital, Steve Reed MP, Sutton Council, Tom Brake MP, Tony Newman, Waste incinerator, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Another body-blow as Hammerson lists malls for sale

The latest body-blow to the prospects of the £1.4billion redevelopment of Croydon town centre came last night, with all the force of an Anthony Joshua uppercut: Hammerson is exiting the retail shopping park business, and doing so as fast as … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, CPO, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

£2.5bn fund closure is bad news for Croydon’s Westfield hopes

The doubts about whether the Westfield redevelopment of Croydon’s Whitgift Centre will ever begin grew even greater this week, as one of the country’s biggest property funds began blocking investors from making withdrawals, blaming both Brexit and the retail downturn … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Paul Scott, Planning, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Interest hike squeezes Brick by Brick’s speculative schemes

The Tory government’s obstinate fixation to drive the country off a Brexit cliff-edge at the end of October is driving down the value of the pound and causing massive problems for industry. Especially in construction – which could mean very … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Boxpark, Brick by Brick, Business, Colm Lacey, Colonnades, Croydon Council, Croydon Park Hotel, Gavin Barwell, Housing, Jo Negrini, Planning, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Adonis joins Croydon MP’s 5-year-old campaign for Zone 4

Former Labour transport minister Andrew Adonis has backed calls from a Croydon MP and local businesses to re-zone East Croydon and West Croydon Stations, to make it cheaper to travel between the city centre and the south London borough. Lord … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Commuting, Croydon BID, Croydon Central, Croydon Council, East Croydon, Sarah Jones MP, TfL, Transport, West Croydon, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fireworks for Fairfield: council by-election called for Nov 7

Political editor WALTER CRONXITE hears the starting gun for a five-week campaign which will present a series of unwelcome challenges for Blairite council leader Tony Newman Remember, remember, the seventh of November Gunpowder, treason and plot Or something like that. … Continue reading →

Posted in Chris Clark, Fairfield, Mary Croos, Niro Sirisena, Tony Newman | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How wait for Westfield is turning North End into Hooky Street

Serious doubts exist over Westfield’s plans to redevelop in the town centre. Yet while the council does its best to close down legitimate high street businesses, or mismanages one of the country’s oldest traditional street markets and drives away stall-holders, … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, CPO, Crime, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

A month after seizing Allders, council moves just six traders

The council’s propaganda department has finally, a month after Town Hall heavies staged a dawn raid on the former Allders building, broken its silence over the forced closure of the Croydon Outlet Village. On July 16, around two dozen small … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Jo Negrini, Paul Scott, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Westfield is ‘too little, too late’ to save Croydon town centre

With more than 1,200 empty units in the borough already, traders say that the development blight caused by lengthy delays by supermall operators has turned Croydon into ‘a retail graveyard’. MT WALLETTE reports A shiny new Westfield shopping centre, promised … Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Growth Zone, Jo Negrini, Planning, Tony Newman, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments