Western International and Kier Developments have been successful in their application for planning permission to build a new site for the Hounslow market.
Plans for the scheme, which will see a new market site constructed on 19 acres of land adjacent to the existing market, have been passed by the offices of the Mayor of London and the deputy prime minister.
Building work will commence in the spring of 2006 and the shell will be completed by early 2007. This phase will be followed by a comprehensive fit-out schedule, which will take up to six months. Tenants should therefore be able to start trading in their new market in late 2007.
Having been involved in the lengthy relocation process for more than 10 years already, George Bray, (pictured) chairman of Western International Market Tenants’ Association (WIMTA), was reluctant to bring any of those dates forward in a speech delivered to the market’s annual dinner-dance last Saturday.
However, he told FPJ that Kier believes the move can be completed a few months prior to the officially touted timeline. “The developer reckons things will be finished sooner, but I have seen the timing slip so many times, I would rather be a bit generous,” Bray said. “Kier is champing at the bit though and expects to get the preliminary work done in time to start building just after Christmas.”
Kier also believes that the fitting-out stage might be finished in three months, but Bray is cautious. “We have a large team of advisers making sure that each unit will be fitted out to the exact requirements of tenants and these things can take time.
“Some tenants have already looked at this, but others haven’t. The development team will be having one-on-one meetings with all tenants in due course,” he said.
Hounslow Borough Council will provide £1 million towards the costs of fitting out the stands, which works out at around £9,000 per unit, and Bray estimates that tenants will, between them, have to come up with around £2m of additional investment. “Some traders will not need much more than the basic fittings, and some will require state-of-the-art cold-store facilities,” he said. Each trader will need to find the cash to meet their own needs.
The construction contract will be put out to tender, and Kier will manage the development of the project through to its conclusion
