£1 million from sale of TK Maxx store to fund parkland climbing centre
Cash from the sale of former Peterborough store TK Maxx is to be used to fund the construction of a climbing centre on park land.
More than £1 million from the £2 million TK Maxx sale has been allocated by the Peterborough Towns Fund to the planned Lakeside Activity Centre that is earmarked for a lakeside site in Ferry Meadows.
The centre had already been awarded £3 million from the Towns Fund, which has now agreed to boost that grant with a further £1,073,280.
Adrian Oates, director of development and partnerships at Nene Park Trust, said: “We're very grateful for this additional investment from the Towns Fund.
He added: “Whilst we are still finalising the budget for the project, we expect the funding will allow us to move forward with our exciting plans for Lakeside Activity Centre, which we're aiming to open in 2028, subject to the planning amendment currently in process.”
The trust submitted a planning application to Peterborough City Council last month for the Lakeside Activity Centre, which will feature an indoor roped climbing and bouldering hub plus a café, children’s play area, small gym and accessible changing rooms.
If approved by planners, it is hoped construction will begin in early 2027 with the opening date for the first phase of the centre early in 2028.
The proposed centre is a scaled down version of the trust’s original Olympic-grade 34 metre high Climbing Wall and activity centre, which saw construction costs soar to about £10 million.
Controversial sale of TK Maxx
The sale of the former TK Maxx store on the corner of Bridge Street and Bourges Boulevard triggered controversary in March when it was revealed the £2 million sale price was half the amount the council had originally paid for the building.
The building had been bought by the council with money from the Towns Fund, which is a £22.9 million funding pot granted to Peterborough by the government for projects to boost the city’s economic growth.
It was intended that the four-storey building store would be used for the Towns Fund’s Vine cultural and community hub but that plan was later dropped because of the cost of repairs to building.
However, the sale meant that any proceeds from the sale of the former store had to go back into the Towns Fund pot and shared between its eight projects.
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