New Riverside centre to boost Shrewsbury tourism
A new £150 million shopping centre in Shrewsbury could help bring hundreds of millions of extra tourism revenue to the town, developers today said.
A new £150 million shopping centre in Shrewsbury could help bring hundreds of millions of extra tourism revenue to the town, developers today said.
The go-ahead for the creation of the New Riverside was given by Shropshire Council last week, with construction work on the new shopping complex expected to get under way next summer.
And bosses behind the scheme have now said they believe the ambitious project will help put Shrewsbury on the map and bring more people and money to the town.
It follows a report to Shropshire Council last year by Britton McGrath Associates, which said Shrewsbury was lagging behind the likes of Chester and Durham in terms of visitor numbers.
It said the town currently had 2.6 million visitors a year, compared to Chester’s 41.9 million tourists and Durham’s 17.5 million. The report, published in September, suggested investment could massively boost the £137m spent by tourists in Shrewsbury each year.
“It would appear not unreasonable to suggest that, given our knowledge and confidence in the quality of the visitor experience that Shrewsbury has to offer, with the appropriate investment, it might be possible to increase income from the visitor economy significantly, perhaps even in the order of an incremental 50 to 100 per cent of current performance,” it said.
“If the tourism spend in Shrewsbury increased to, in the order of £275 million per year, it would still place it well below 50 per cent of the tourism spend achieved by Durham or Cardiff and still only 15 per cent of that achieved by Chester and Cheshire West.”
David Rodger, of Ignis Asset Management, one of the firms involved with the centre with owners UK Commercial Property Trust and builders Shearer Property Group, said he was delighted by the approval.
By Chris Burn
Comments for: "New Riverside centre to boost Shrewsbury tourism"
xpistophorous
A new £150 million shopping centre in Shrewsbury could help bring hundreds of millions of extra tourism revenue to the town, developers today said.
In your dreams.
Iron Flag
Nonsense. Standard press release attempting justification for another ugly waste of space that could kill off independent shops, the type of shops tourists really come for.
Matthew
If the type of shops that tourists come to Shrewsbury for is the Independents then they've got nothing to worry about have they?
You may be surprised to hear but visitors also come to the town to use the chain stores as well! Otherwise they would've all been shut down too. At the moment Pride Hill is pretty much a clone of many other towns with the same chain stores lining the street.
If the New Riverside is true to its word and attracts city boutiques and specialist shops then it would actually become an attraction in itself. No where else between Chester and Birmingham has these so it will be far more unique than the 'Clone Town' image. These high-end shoppers are also the type of customers that the Independent stores would like to see more of so by pulling people away from Chester, Shrewsbury might actually increase footfall of shoppers across the board.
And before you say 'Empty Shops', etc .. If the developers are spending £150million or so then they are going to want a return on their investment... correct? So I am confident that they are going to be in contact with Disney, Republic, Schuh, Cafe Rouge, etc.
Why pump money into something as a private investor if there's no return? Makes simple sense!
Stop sending negative comments towards the new shopping centre. Why don't you focus your annoyance on the out of town retail developments? That's where the biggest problem is!.
xpistophorous
Iron Flag's comments are not negative they are realism.
When will everyone finally come to terms with the fact that whatever plans are adopted Shrewsbury town centre is now well beyond resurgence.