The latest round in a fight to redevelop the shopping heart of Croydon will kick off tonight.
Shopping centre developer Westfield is set to reveal its plans for an “initial vision” for the Whitgift Centre as part of the pre-application consultation with the council at a meeting in Croydon tonight.
Westfield has gone head to head with rival property company Hammerson which has its own plans for the site.
Westfield plans a “world-class shopping, dining, leisure and residential precinct” for the site and earlier this year agreed a development agreement with Whitgift Trust, the 400 year-old charity that owns the freehold and 25% of the lease of the 1.2 million square foot centre.
While rival Hammerson owns a 25% stake in the lease of the mall with partners Royal London and IBRC Assurance Company (previously Anglo Irish Bank).
Westfield and Hammerson have been exchanging blows in the fight to prove who has what it takes to win the right to re-develop the current centre into a modern shopping spot.
At the same planning meeting tonight Hammerson’s plans for its other shopping centre in the town will be heard. Hammerson plans a £50 million extension to Centale shopping centre and has just signed up National Amusements’ Cinema de Lux cinema to anchor the extension - the first in London.
The fight between the two property titans has been further stoked by stock market rumours of Westfield’s interest in buying London-listed Hammerson.
