Oldham Town Centre - Master Developer Private Sector Partner (PSP)

Princes Gate was not included within the Master Development Agreement (dated 11th September 2023) “MDA”, however the original procurement documentation, dialogue during the developer selection process and final MDA anticipated that - at the Council’s discretion - additional land may be sought to be included during the contract term.

In March 2024 the Council approved the Acceptance of Brownfield Infrastructure and Land Funding Grant “BILF” for Oldham Mumps (which comprised of the small sites already covered by the MDA and the adjacent land at Princes Gate which is an integral part of the recently endorsed Oldham Town Centre Development Framework). There are key delivery milestones of the funding and the developer has recently secured detailed planning permission and procured a main contractor to ensure compliance with GMCA's requirements for Princes Gate.

The Council considers that the time required to undertake a procurement process of an alternative developer at Princes Gate would result in the failure of these key milestones being achieved. This would cause a risk of loss of the £5.552m BILF grant which is conditional on meeting the deadlines and, along with construction cost inflation in the intervening period, is likely to render the project unviable. As a result, it has become necessary to include Princes Gate within the MDA, in order to meet the Council's regeneration and wider policy objectives within the commercial and legal framework of the previously procured MDA.

The overall value included in the Contract Notice has an upper limit of £550m. The estimated Gross Development Value (GDV) of the Princes Gate scheme is £100m. The value of the extension is therefore substantially less than 50% of the original contract value.