Plans to transform part of a Reading retail and leisure centre to create almost 500 homes and new shops have expanded on by developers at a public consultation event.
Recently, The Oracle shopping centre’s owners, Hammerson, launched a website showcasing its plan to transform the eastern half of centre.
The proposal involves replacing the former Debenhams unit and the Vue Cinema’s building, on either side of the River Kennet, with new facilities including 475 homes and new retail and leisure space.
In a webinar held on Tuesday, August 23, more details were revealed.
Michael Dillon, from CallisonRTKL planning firm, said part of the former Debenhams store, now home to Next, would be demolished.
The parts of the building that would be retained would be reconfigured, with leisure functions on the lower floors and retail on the upper floors.
On the other side of the Kennet, the building that currently houses the Vue cinema will be replaced with a new building for mixed use, with residential apartments on upper floors. A cinema and units for leisure use would be on the lower levels.
A total of 475 apartments have been proposed, and it is believed all of these will be made ‘Build to Rent’, which involves all homes being professionally managed by a single company.
Registered attendees of the webinar could ask questions.
One asked how long tenants typically stay in Build to Rent homes.
Hope Harrison, from Packaged Living, said: “We found that people do tend to stay as a resident, they may move around within the building, they may move to a larger unit, they move in with a friend and rent somewhere.
“We want to deliver units that are homes, and because we have the amenity provision, because we’re well located, we feel that people tend to stay there at longer because it suits their needs, as opposed to just using it as a stop gap between purchasing somewhere.”
Concerns were also raised around lighting in Yield Hall Place, which bridges the Kennet, with requests for this to be improved.
Mr Dillon replied said it would, in addition to landscaping improvements.
A question was asked about the nature of the architecture.
Mr Dillon said: “We’ve been set a challenge by the local planning authority to do something out of the ordinary, to do something with a bit of a wow factor to it.
“Obviously that can be very challenging because we’ve got a budget to work within, but we think we’ve come up with some ideas to address that, so hopefully by the time we get to make a planning application we’ll have something that will be inspiring and be of interest, and will delight people as the walk through The Oracle.”
Hammerson is engaging in an ongoing consultation before its officially submits its plan to Reading Borough Council.
Responding to a question about when the application would be submitted, Hannah Knowles, from Turley planning consultants said: “We’re still working through pre-application discussions, but it’s likely to be Autumn time that we aim for a submission.”
The webinar can be viewed on The Oracle’s consultation website.
