Coventry City Centre South Development

Beginning in 2015, Coventry City Council undertook a regulated procurement process to procure a development partner with the commitment, expertise and resource to deliver a high quality, mixed use retail, leisure and residential regeneration scheme within Coventry City Centre. The Memorandum of Information issued as part of the regulated procurement process stated the following: "The Council considers that CCS will be more than just a retail scheme. The vision for CCS is instead for it to be a vibrant and successful mixed-use environment. The scheme will respect and where necessary, reinstate the historic street pattern of Coventry. It will not just be a place to shop, visit for leisure or live in but will instead be an environment where a range of activities come together and respond to increased demand for flexible lifestyles". The Council was not prescriptive as to the mix of uses to be proposed by bidders in order to achieve the fundamental objective of regenerating this part of the City Centre. The development partner has been appointed following the conclusion of the regulated procurement process and their responsibilities include: leading on pre-development tasks, including preparing a scheme design, planning and securing development finance. The development partner will also be responsible for the construction, marketing and letting of the scheme. A Development Agreement was entered into with the development partner dated 21 March 2019. As a consequence of the following cumulative events: • the extent of the changes in the retail, leisure and residential markets, and the occurrence and consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic which have taken place since the Development Agreement was entered into; • the implications of the Covid 19 pandemic in terms of accelerating the contraction of retailing, leisure and the economic landscape as whole • since 2019 there have been very significant changes in the residential market and widespread acceptance of the benefits of inclusion of a greater proportion of residential uses to reinvigorate town centres, • the consequential requirement to include an element of affordable housing in the scheme as a condition of public funding • the extent of rising inflation and its impact on construction costs as well as retailer costs and profitability; and • the appointment of the Approved Funder, as part of satisfying the condition precedent in the Development Agreement titled "Funding Condition", A number of modifications are required to be made to the Development Agreement (see further details in section II.2.14 below)