History
Manchester City Council retained seats on the board of the Ship Canal Company until the mid-1980s. By then the arrangement had become "meaningless", as most of the company's shares were controlled by property developer, John Whittaker. In 1986 the council gave up all but one of its seats for a payment of £10 million and extricated itself from a possible conflict of interest, as Whittaker was proposing to develop the large out-of-town shopping centre on company land at Dumplington, which became the Trafford Centre.
Manchester City Council opposed the development, believing it would impact negatively on the city centre economy, but accepted it was "obviously in the interests of the shareholders". The company paid £7 million in cash and £3 million was invested in a joint venture company, Ship Canal Developments, set up by Whittaker and the council to provide resources and development expertise for the regeneration of east Manchester.
Peel Holdings submitted a planning application to Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council for a development on approximately 300 acres of land in 1986. The application was "called in" by the Secretary of State for the Environment and legal disputes ensued requiring two public enquiries before planning permission was granted. Issues involved congestion on the M60 orbital motorway, and some believed the development would have adverse consequences on shopping centres throughout Greater Manchester region and beyond. Planning permission was granted in 1993 before being rejected by the Court of Appeal. It was reinstated in 1995 when the House of Lords gave approval for the development.
Construction began in 1996 and the centre opened on the 10 September 1998 becoming the UK's first 'mega mall' which combined retail, dining and leisure facilities. On opening, the Trafford Centre was the largest shopping centre in the UK but lost the title to Bluewater in Kent in 1999. However due to numerous expansions since 2006, the Trafford Centre is now bigger than Bluewater.
The Peel Group sold of the centre to Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) in January 2011 for £1.6 billion and John Whittaker, chairman of Peel Group became deputy chairman of CSC. Peel could have sold the centre for more than £1.65 billion if they had received cash but the £1.6 billion deal was the largest property transaction in British history, and the biggest European property deal of 2011.
The Trafford Centre is valued at £1.7 billion by its owners, Capital Shopping Centres and has an annual income of £85.3 million, a £400 headline rent and has an ABC1 visitor percentage of 71%. By comparison, the Metrocentre which is the second largest shopping centre in the United Kingdom (after the Trafford Centre) is valued at £864 million, an annual property income of £50.4m and an ABC1 visitor percentage of 57% of ABC1 customers.
Read more about this topic: Trafford Centre
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