Fresh twist in major plan for Exeter high rise development

Exeter: A high-rise project in the heart of Exeter is taking a surprising turn. Originally, it was set to include affordable homes for key workers, but now it won’t have any at all.

The developers behind the long-closed Harlequins shopping centre won’t be building those affordable units they promised three years ago. Instead, they’ll pay Exeter City Council millions to create affordable homes elsewhere.

The planning committee learned that an independent valuer said the project wouldn’t be viable if affordable homes were included. If they didn’t agree to this change, the whole development might not happen.

So, the committee felt they had no choice but to go along with it. Cllr Anne Jobson expressed frustration, saying the council was being ‘held hostage’ by the developer, Curlew Alternatives Property.

She’s worried that this co-living space might just turn into student housing, leaving Exeter with nothing beneficial. Cllr Jobson suspects the developer has been stalling since the beginning, and she wants to make sure they can’t easily back out of their commitments.

The shopping centre has been called a ‘ghost town’ since its businesses shut down. It opened in 1987 as a mall with 32 shops and a bridge to the nearby Guildhall shopping centre.

Curlew bought it in 2018 and planned to turn it into co-living spaces and a hotel. After the hotel plans fell through, they got permission to demolish the mall and build two blocks of flats instead, with a total of 378 rooms.

Initially, they promised that 20% of those homes would be affordable, but now they claim it’s not feasible. An independent auditor backs this up, citing rising construction costs and interest rates.

Now, instead of building affordable homes on-site, Curlew will pay the council up to £7.5 million to build them elsewhere. They’ll pay £1 million when demolition starts, another million when construction begins, and the rest later.

Cllr Diana Moore called the development a ‘disaster’ for Exeter. She noted that it was once seen as a significant project, especially for key workers during the pandemic. Now, options for young singles are getting scarce and pricey.

Cllr Michael Mitchell added that this feels like a free pass for the developer. He worries there’s no guarantee they’ll follow through with the project, and by agreeing to this, they might just make it easier to sell the site to someone else.

Interestingly, no one from the developers spoke at the meeting.