Hope after former shopping centre's false dawns

"This is the year when we're going to see progress."

East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward sounded confident the long-awaited redevelopment of Nottingham's Broad Marsh was on the horizon as she spoke about the project this week.

After decades of grand plans - always accompanied with the customary artist's impressions which have always failed to materialise - city residents would be forgiven for being sceptical.

But with two seemingly important announcements this week, can Nottingham finally wave farewell to the mound of concrete and twisted metal the Broad Marsh has become?

"There are more development opportunities here than anywhere else, and this development will act as the catalyst for all of them."

That might sound like a politician or city planner talking about the site as it is in 2025, but it's not.

In fact, that was an architect speaking to BBC East Midlands Today about redeveloping the Broad Marsh in November 1990.

Back then, the concrete monolith, built in the brutalist style common of the 1960s and 70s, was already looking tired.

Plans at the time would have seen nearby Collin Street "put under glass", with new shops and a paved square.

"Work could begin next year," the BBC report said.

It marked the beginning of a string of proposals that all came to nothing.

In 1998, further plans promised 104 shops, a multiplex cinema, and a nightclub.

"I think it's the latest stage in Nottingham city centre's quite long battle to continue to be the leading shopping centre in the East Midlands," said retail expert Paul Whysall at the time.

By 2002, a £400m expansion scheme had been approved by city planners, with then-owners Westfield declaring it an important "milestone" for the site.

The entrances at Lister Gate and Collin Street both saw refurbishment work, but the bigger plans once again never came to fruition, with the financial crash and recession blamed for further delays.

Revised proposals submitted in 2010 were proven to be shortlived when just a year later, Westfield announced it was selling its stake in the centre.

It was bought by Capital Shopping Centres - later renamed intu - which already owned the city's other major shopping venue, the Victoria Centre.

The years that followed saw back-and-forth rows with the city council over which centre intu would redevelop first.

As more and more units were left vacant, it took until 2015 for intu's own vision for a revamp to be approved.

The company planned to spend £114m turning it into a "leisure destination" with more restaurants, cafes and a cinema, and 2018 was touted as a possible opening date.

That - of course - wasn't to be, but by the end of the decade the city council had committed £50m to the scheme and work was finally under way.

At long last, it looked like it was for real, with redevelopment taking place in front of people's eyes rather than just on paper.

That is until 2020, when the Covid pandemic meant work was halted.

It meant more than just a pause in construction. Intu was already struggling financially and the first lockdown seemed to finish off the shopping centre giant.

The company entered administration in June of that year, leaving the Broad Marsh half-demolished.

The site was immediately handed back to the city council, which was quick to say it didn't have the resources to take on the redevelopment on its own.

Then-council leader David Mellen called the collapse a "major blow" for the city - and millions of pounds of taxpayers' money appeared to have been lost - but it did at least provide an opportunity for a rethink.

An advisory group was assembled, bringing together experts from different sectors, and in 2021 a new "vision" was created with the help of world famous designer Thomas Heatherwick.

It involved retaining some of the old shopping centre frame and reconnecting ancient streets with a green space at its heart.

But the biggest barrier remained - money.

The council applied for grants from the previous government's Levelling Up Fund, but missed out on three occasions.

The surrounding area saw progress with the opening of the new Broad Marsh car park and central library in 2021 and 2023 respectively.

And in 2024, part of the vision became a reality with the opening of the new "green heart".

But however welcome the new additions may be, the elephant in the room at each unveiling has been the shell of the shopping centre itself, still casting a shadow over the ribbon-cutting.

The grey concrete may have been hidden behind green hoarding - but it's still there.

The idea to retain the frame was dropped late last year, and this week's approval of funding for demolition work does make it seem like its days are numbered.

Once again, Nottingham is hearing politicians' promises that it is for real this time, but after all the false dawns, there will be those who only believe it when they see it.

Paul Whysall, who was quoted in the BBC report from 1998, is now 77 and an emeritus professor of retailing at Nottingham Business School.

After many false dawns, he feels the saga is now finally drawing to a close.

He felt the decline of retail on the site was "inevitable", having always been the "second best" of the city's two shopping venues.

"It's a highly strategic location for the city, between the centre and the railway station, but it's never quite lived up to its potential," he said.

He added a change towards more residential use made sense.

"I think it's about the city coming to terms with the changing role of a city centre," he said.

"Retailing cannot be expected to do as much as it used to do."

We expect to hear more about how exactly it is set to change in the coming weeks, but with construction work now set to start in 2029, according to the city council, there is some way still to go.

This may not be the end of the Broad Marsh nightmare, but perhaps it is the beginning of the end.

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