Former TK Maxx store could become apartments as buyer is lined up to develop Peterborough 'gateway' site

Developer Bridge Street (March) Ltd, which is part of the March-based MJS Investment, has made an offer to buy the four storey building that stands on the corner of Bridge Street and Bourges Boulevard.

The company is seeking to redevelop the site as a mixed use residential-led scheme.

The proposal is in line with the council expectations as the sale brochure produced by agents Montague Evans stated the 90,907 square feet building ‘has potential for residential redevelopment for about 50 units but offers will also be considered for redevelopment proposals.’

The building at 62 to 68 Bridge Street has previously been occupied by Woolworths as well as TK Maxx and New Look but is currently owned by Peterborough City Council, which bought it in 2020 for £4,164,346, a price that included fees.

According to details held by the Land Registry, the former TK Maxx building was bought for £3,975,000 by the council on December 15, 2020 from Picton UK Real Estate Trust, based in Guernsey.

Members of the council’s ruling cabinet are to decide on December 16 whether to approve the sale of the building, which had been bought to be transformed into The Vine cultural and community hub.

The project was abandoned when it was realised that repurposing the former TK Maxx building would be too expensive for the local authority.

Instead in 2023 the council opted to sell the building and at one stage former council leader Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald announced there was interest from a buyer who wanted to turn it into a conferencing and banqueting centre.

There was to have been a rooftop terrace, restaurants and bar plus an unknown number of apartments.

But in July this year councillors agreed the building should be put on the open market and sold.

Cabinet members will be told there had been six bids for the property with the bidding going to a second round as the council sought the highest unconditional offer.

A report to Cabinet states that the council’s agents recommended on October 30 that it should proceed with selling to a special purchase vehicle of MJS Investments (March) Ltd as this offered the best price, funding, track record, timescales, conditions and proposed use.

MJS is the company behind the redevelopment of Guild House in Oundle Road into 138 apartments and is also working on the transformation of the former Whitworth Mill at Fletton Quays and and extension at 35 Thorpe Road. It is understood the company is in discussions about the redevelopment of the former Goods Shed at Fletton Quays.

How important is this site to Peterborough?

The former TK Maxx store is generally regarded as prominent 'eyesore’ brick giant that occupies a gateway site into Peterborough’s retail heart and is just a short walk to the city’s impressive university, ARU Peterborough.

Adrian Chapman, the council’s executive director of place and economy, has previously said: “We should be proud of this site.

"At the moment it is difficult to be because the building is a slug of a building.

“I imagine it with something on there which is iconic in style and nature and is a real gateway into our city centre.”

How did the council fund the purchase of the TK Maxx building?

When the council bought the TK Maxx building it used £4 million from the £22.9 million Towns Fund budget that had been given to Peterborough under the then Conservative government’s Levelling Up initiative.

Councillors will be told that once the sale is completed the £4 million will be returned to the Towns Fund.

The report to Cabinet states: “The surplus funds from the sale will be reallocated into other Towns Fund projects which was the original source that funded the purchase.

"The Towns Fund Board have been consulted and asked to recommend a preference for the reallocation of funds by the council.

"The council is the approved body responsible for managing and approving re-allocation of the Towns Fund.

However, it understood that the sale value of the building is less than the price paid by the council five years ago.

What has happened to The Vine project?

The Vine cultural and community hub is one of eight projects being funded by the Towns Fund programme.

It is now intended to house The Vine across d across three sites including Central Library, Peterscourt and the Victorian Goods Shed at Fletton Quays.