Bolton Council has struck gold and won a major national award for its regeneration vision.
The local authority won the Re:generate category for The Market Place Shopping Centre at this year’s Revo Annual Gold Awards dinner, at London’s Grosvenor House.
The awards, held Wednesday, December 6, recognise the best retail and leisure destinations, operators and the public sector bodies who work alongside them.
The council won the award following the Market Place’s £23m transformational refurbishment to create a contemporary retail and leisure destination.
It had been in decline prior to the purchase by Inception Holdings Sarl in November 2013.
The centre was redeveloped by Moorgarth Group with the support of the council and work has included a new dining destination in The Vaults and a nine-screen cinema.
Over the last four years, footfall has increased at the centre by 45 per cent, from 3.8 million to 6.5 million, and 252 jobs have been created following the refurbishment.
Leader of Bolton Council, Cllr Cliff Morris, said: “We are absolutely delighted to win this award.
“We worked closely with Moorgarth on the redevelopment and our vision for the town centre is shared by them.
“The transformation of the centre has acted as a catalyst for further developer interest and investment in Bolton.
“We recently unveiled our £1 billion masterplan to further regenerate our town centre and major regeneration sites like Logistics North are also complementing our town centre plans and building on our reputation as a place to do business.
“The award is a great recognition of the work that has taken place and testament that Bolton is carving out a reputation as a place to visit and attracting shoppers back into the town centre.”
Tim Vaughan, Chief Executive of Moorgarth Group, added: “We are thrilled that Bolton Council has been recognised for their investment in the town centre in these prestigious awards. Such recognition goes a long way to improving the perceptions of Bolton and we are proud to be working along-side them in achieving this.”
Market Place Shopping Centre also scooped gold at the ICSC Solal Marketing Awards in Austria in June 2017 and a Revo Gold Award in the Refurbishment and Extension category in 2016.
