We are pumping almost £100 million into the City Centre South development.
The proposals represent a ‘21st-century rethink’, making city centre living a reality by creating hundreds of new homes on a reclaimed brownfield site and moving away from the reliance on big anchor stores.
It is a big step for Coventry to see these plans submitted. The pandemic has had a significant impact on our city centres hard but City Centre South, and other schemes already underway in Coventry, can provide the new jobs, homes and commerce we will need to kickstart our local economy.
That’s why regionally we are investing millions in infrastructure and regeneration schemes and have continued to do so throughout the pandemic.
In Coventry, not only are we putting £98m towards City Centre South but we are putting a further £40m into the redevelopment of the city’s rail station with tens of millions more into schemes like Friargate.
Coventry and the rest of the West Midlands have many inherent strengths – a diverse and innovative economy, one of the youngest and fastest-growing populations in Europe, unrivalled connectivity, brilliant centres of learning, and world-class businesses, large and small.
An outline planning proposal for the regeneration scheme, which will include a cinema, restaurants, co-working premises, community space, alongside shopping outlets, new homes and space for a hotel, has now been submitted.
The Shearer Property Group has already held a public consultation into the plans, as well as a public exhibition revealing plans for a new focal leisure point on a 15-acre site taking in Bull Yard, Shelton Square, Market Way, City Arcade and Hertford Street.
Guy Shearer, from The Shearer Property Group, said: “For us, the vision really is about trying to bring the community back to the very heart of the city of Coventry because that is what is lacking.
“If you look at the planned 15-acre site of City Centre South, within that 15 acres you will be amazed to hear that currently there’s not one single home - so nobody lives in the heart of the city.
“Our aim is actually to transform the city to bring back a community – it’s about getting homes here and it’s getting jobs here.”