'Colossal beast' shopping mall in St Austell could damage trade in towns across county
A "huge shadow" will be cast over four Westcountry towns if a £100 million out-of-town retail development is built, according to business leaders.
Developers Mercian Developments Limited want to create a 100-acre site at Coyte Farm, around one-and-a-half miles away from St Austell.
When submitted to Cornwall Council for approval the plan will include a 110,000sq ft food store, 90,000sq ft of non-food retail, a hotel and restaurant. Supermarket Sainsbury's has already signed up.
Mercian said the site would benefit the town by attracting top national retailers who would not consider the town centre in any event. But owners of the White River Place shopping centre, Ellandi, and local business leaders are worried.
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Morgan Garfield, partner at London-based Ellandi, investment managers in commercial property, said Newquay, Truro and Bodmin would also be affected.
He said: "It would be the biggest ever stand-alone retail development in the county. This is a colossal beast.
"Retailers in St Austell would see a 30% drop in profits – some would see as much as a 50% fall, particularly the smaller retailers. It will cast a huge shadow – especially over St Austell."
Tom French, chairman of St Austell Bay Chamber of Commerce and a town councillor, said with a cohesive approach new life could be breathed into the town centre in five years.
Mike Coles, chartered surveyor and managing director of Colvase Estates Ltd, which owns commercial buildings in the town, said: "We can and will have a successful town centre. We need to upgrade shop fronts, put paint on walls, make it more interesting."
Concerns over high car park charges deterring shoppers were also expressed. Mark Robinson, partner at Ellandi, said by Christmas he hoped to reduce charges at the centre's underground car park, which has around 500 spaces – in total the town has around a thousand.
He said the company was looking at introducing free wi-fi and was backing plans for a customer loyalty card scheme. Chris Witt, business consultant, is in charge of making the town a Business Improvement District (BID) similar to Truro, Falmouth, Newquay and Camborne.
BIDs generate funds to spend marketing towns and events. Mr Witt said: "We have to be pro-active and dynamic. We can't sit on our hands."
After yesterday's press conference Simon Hoare, spokesman for Mercian which is developing the new shopping centre, said it was not in the firm's interests to turn St Austell into a ghost town. "A vibrant town centre is in everyone's interests. Large national retailers – the sort shoppers want – will not open at White River Place or other units in the town centre because the units are simply not big enough. Modern, big stores want 25,000-50,000sq ft."
He said up to 72% of people in the St Austell area do their non-food shopping in places like Truro. "We're not some smash-and-grab company," he said. "We're talking about a £100 million investment with 650 construction jobs."
Comments
by CoyteFarm
Tuesday, December 18 2012, 11:34AM
“"For more information on Coyte Farm like our Facebook Page: http://tinyurl.com/d6z8v7g or follow us on twitter: @coytefarm”
by Ellandi
Monday, September 24 2012, 10:56AM
“@ Oli- More than 100,000 sqft of new non food development can be accomodated in St Austell town centre, this has been identified and confirmed in a report by Deloittes that will be published shortly. With some reconfiguration of space we have over 50,000 sqft in WRP.
We would humbly suggest that St Austell does not need a 110,000 sqft category killer Sainsbury that will sell masses of non-food as well.”
by Oli1282
Monday, September 24 2012, 10:34AM
“If you can offer 110,000sq ft food store, 90,000sq ft of non-food retail, a hotel and restaurant and Sainsburys supermarket in the town center then great news!”
by Ellandi
Monday, September 24 2012, 9:00AM
“@Oli- Thanks for your response, happy to clear a few things up:
-The two retailers Bon Marche and Peacocks (part of the same company) went bust nationally, before we purchased the scheme and not beacuse of any rent increases.
-The car park tariff is currently set by an independent operator APCOA, we hope to announce major changes to the pricing shortly.
-We are unashamedly promoting St Austell town centre and will fight alongside the chamber of commerce, BID, the existing retailers, local and national, etc., to protect it.”
by Oli1282
Monday, September 24 2012, 8:44AM
“Your last comment just about sums it up - ' retailers will come to the town center if they know that out of town is no longer an option' You are using bully tactics almost - put your retail outlet in the town center or else there will not be another option!!
Coyte Farm has a supermarket, non food retail, hotel and a resturant......sounds pretty much like a retail park to me.
You say its all for the benefit of the current retailers but since you bought WRP for less than half of what it cost to build, two shops have already closed down due to high rent increases and there has been empty units since the development was built long before Coyte Farm was on the scene.
Also two words - parking charges. How you can warrent such exspensive parking prices is beyond me.”
by Ellandi
Sunday, September 23 2012, 7:19PM
“@Oli - Coyte Farm is not a retail park, it is actually bigger that the rest of St Austell put together, hence "colossal" and it will decimate the town centre as major OOT development always does.
We completely agree with you regarding restaurants and hope to have some exciting news on that front soon.
Retailers will come to the town centre if they know that out of town is no longer an option.”
by Oli1282
Friday, September 21 2012, 10:08AM
“Coyte Farm would be a brilliant addition to St Austell! Long have we waited for a decent Retail Park like all the other towns.I am a 30 year old woman and if i want to go and have a decent days shopping, i have to go to either Truro or Plymouth. St Austell needs some big names stores ( not Poundland or 99p Stores!! ) And Mike Coles comment - "We can and will have a successful town centre. We need to upgrade shop fronts, put paint on walls, make it more interesting." Really!?? I dont want to have the same old rubbish shops painted pretty, i want new shops with more choice to us, the people.
Plenty of other towns have both a Retail Park and a town center and seem to manage to rub along. I for one would like to see more eating places and bars in the town, THATS what will bring the town alive and create a decent buzz.”
by Ellandi
Thursday, September 20 2012, 12:33PM
“@kernwekonan- We can appreciate your frustration with what has gone before, but we can assure you we have not invetsed tens of millions of pounds in St Austell to allow it to stagnate.
Far from being moaners we are passionate about the potential of St Austells existing town centre.
Coyte Farm will devestate the town centre.”
by josdave
Thursday, September 20 2012, 12:26PM
“And they call themselves planners? This is the same council that puts up parking charges in the town centres, allows planning permission to any supermarket(with free parking) that asks for it and then bemoan the fact that our town centres are dying. Whgere did they go to school or did they?”
by kernewekonan
Thursday, September 20 2012, 10:27AM
“yet more moaners stay in the past & stagnate,seems all these nimbies think of. i am cornish & i was born and brought up in st, austell. my belief is that this development will be the making of the town and area around it. we must go forward to get people here instead of truro plymouth and the like which has really not changed much over the last few years.”