Description
Minerva's Croydon Estate is principally two large town centre land
holdings totalling 6.1 acres (2.46 hectares) comprising
approximately 1 million sq ft of 1960's and 1970's offices, the
UK's third largest department store together with additional retail
shops and leisure accommodation.
Much of the estate has been held by Minerva for redevelopment as
part of the Park Place shopping scheme. With the planning now
lapsed for that scheme, Minerva can now turn its attention to the
future opportunities for the site free from the constraints of the
original Park Place development.
As part of the regeneration for the Town Centre, Croydon Council
has launched its new "Imagine Croydon" inititative which will form
the initial consultation for the emerging Local Development
Framework (LDF). The first stage of the LDF is called the Core
Strategy, which is scheduled to conclude by 2010. This master plan
approach will provide the vision and development plans for the
intensification of the town centre with significant increases in
the commercial and ersidential population with high quality public
realm and enhanced transport facilities.
Minerva, as one of the major landowners, will welcome the
opportunity to reveiw with Croydon Council the future of its own
sites. We will also continue to review the development
opportunities for the sites separately to ensure the future
development potential is maximised.
Any future developments will need to reflect the changed economic
climate for the viability and funding of large town centre
projects. This approach will assist us to focus attention on those
opportunities which can be sold off separately or developed with
partners in a more manageable phased way.
In the short to medium term Minerva can also now turn attention to
income generation from the existing properties by offering
competitive rents and lease terms to reflect the current market
conditions. This flexible approach is considered to be attractive
to the current Croydon leasing market to attract incoming tentants
increase occupancy of the estate and to reduce running costs.
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