Council look to work out how much Hippodrome site they bought in 2022 is worth
The ‘Parks & Wrex’ project could slowly be moving forward, as Wrexham Council look to discover how much it is worth, and could be rented for, before looking to offer a lease/sale to help make ‘Ryan Rodney Reynolds Park’ a reality.
Wrexham.com asked about the progress of the site at the most recent media brief, with Cllr Bithell promising a ‘full update’ following a meeting later that day.
A week on with no update we asked again, and was briefly told by Cllr Bithell, “Officers are continuing to work on the project with a further report to be presented to the executive board for a decision.”
The Hippodrome, on Henblas Street, had been boarded up for over a decade after the building was burnt down in a mystery fire in 2008.
Over the years there had been hopes that the land could be redeveloped into housing or commercial space in a bid to regenerate the area.
After more than a decade of an eyesore in the city centre, in January 2022 Wrexham Council announced that it had secured ownership of the land, promising “to make sure that the spot is put to best use” by providing a wider benefit to the city centre.
The council had used cash from the Transforming Towns fund, with ‘flexible space’ promised to the people of Wrexham. Lately it had been included in the City of Culture bid, and during the previous bid was a focal point of the judges visit around play.
Always sunny in Wrexham – the site yesterday.
As we have previously reported contact was first made from north america with the council just over 12 months ago ahead of a spoof-but-serious plan for a ‘memorial park’ for Ryan Rodney Reynolds. In October the overall vision plan was made public, with Chris Pratt also getting involved in the announcement.
A year on and the site remains pretty much unchanged since the announcement, with the council trying to work out a value of the site despite only purchasing it in early 2022. Council insiders have said the overall goal is to work out a long term lease for the site to whichever development vehicle is taking the project forward.
Wrexham.com understands there is no lease in place, nor contracts / heads of terms, nor planning application for the site so far.
Unusually for possible council asset disposal the PR damage to the council is seen as a risk due to the high profile nature of those involved and the worldwide A-list promotion the plan had a year ago, and thus it appears the council are very keen for the project to proceed.
It is unclear if ‘bad PR’, as it was explained to us by one council insider, is now going to be part of future policy decisions.
As the Welcome To Wrexham documentary has shown, Rob is a huge fan of the planning process and red tape locally, and no doubt will be looking forward to the matter coming before the Executive Board, contract and lease negotiations, and then full plans being submitted and possibly coming before the Planning Committee.
Below: Historic example of works that may not happen under a ‘no bad PR’ policy – Councillor’s own carpark that categorically will not get resurfaced… gets resurfaced!
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