Shearer's chief executive Guy Shearer said: 'We started talking to Grosvenor last Spring. They have huge experience in dealing with projects of this nature and they are well known to Cambridge City Council having developed the Grafton Centre'.
Grosvenor is able to significantly speed up the Grand Arcade project because it owns a near the Grafton Centre at 62/74 Burleigh Street which could house the anchor Robert Sayle department store while the Grand Arcade development takes place. A planning application has already been made to use the Burleigh Street site as a temporary department store.
Robert Sayle--part of the John Lewis partnership--will occupy the 275,000-sf anchor store in the new scheme which will also provide 50 new shops in a city that has been starved of new retail development because of its strict planning controls and fragmented land ownership.
Cambridge City Council, Shearer Property Group and USS have already acquired the majority of the Grand Arcade site, including key holdings from various Cambridge Colleges. And the council has agreed to invoke compulsory purchase powers if site assembly is delayed. Construction is due to start on site in 2004 with completion in 2007.
Lasalle Investment Management is development adviser.
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