Special investment partnership created to develop Peterborough's Fletton Quays is to be dissolved

An investment partnership set up to develop awkward land holdings in Peterborough, and heralded as one of the first in the country, is to be dissolved.

The Peterborough Investment Partnership (PIP) was created in 2015 as a way of securing the long awaited development of Fletton Quays, a prime 20 acre site on the south bank of the River Nene.

PIP was initially set up as a development and regeneration joint venture between Peterborough City Council and Lucent Strategic Land Fund and was to have offices at Peterborough Town Hall, employing between 11 to 50 people with Pram Nayak its managing partner.

At the time, the then council leader, Councillor Marco Cereste said: “This is one of the first investment and development models of its kind in the UK.

“It demonstrates the optimism our private sector partners share for the future of Peterborough.”Now eight years later, PIP is to be dissolved as the £120 million development of Fletton Quays nears completion with the council proposing to deal with other development sites in the city on individual merits.

An annual review of PIP’s activities is to be presented to members of the council’s shareholder cabinet committee on June 12 and show that PIP is now a partnership between the council and Peterborough Partnership Ltd, a subsidiary of investment specialists IAGH3, which is reported to be a Channel Islands-based investment vehicle specialising in funding local authority developments.

The review outlines the key achievements of the PIP.

They include the construction of The Hilton Garden Inn Hotel and apartment block on plot one, although the report notes that completion was intended for 2022 but a number of Covid-related setbacks including staff illness, supply chain challenges, and the collapse of the main contractor, have meant that the earliest pre-bookings at the hotel are now being taken for December 2023.

Others are the development of the Government Hub, which opened last March on plot two, the Weston Homes apartments on plot three and Sand Martin House on plot five.

The report states that only plot four, the Victorian rail Goods Shed, is still owned by the PIP. It is being marketed but the council is keen to see it developed as a food and

beverage hub, possibly part the planned The Vine culture hub.

The PIP has also provided access rights to the Whitworth Mill site, plots seven and eight, which was not part of the original acquisition.

In addition to Fletton Quays, PIP has sold the Pleasure Fair Meadows car park to Medesham Homes and oversaw the sale of the former Market site at Northminster to Cross Keys Homes.

It has been part of a number of so-called Special Purpose Vehicles set up to bring forward the sites at PIP (Fletton Quays) Limited, PIP (Pleasure Fair Meadows) Limited, and PIP (Northminister) Ltd.

Councillors will also be told that although PIP made a loss of £166,000 in 2021/22, it did have reserves of £1.3 million at March 31, 2022.

Sales of the Northminster site and the Pleasure Fair Meadows car park occurred in 2022/23 and will be reflected in the accounts for that financial year.