Ferris Cowper is a former leader of East Hampshire District Council and chairman of the influential Whitehill and Bordon Regeneration Strategy Board.
In his role, he pulls all the strings as the various agencies work to double the size of Bordon over the next few years.
Included in the £1 billion project are a new town centre with up to 40 shops, a six-screen cinema surrounded by eating establishments, up to 5,000 new homes, a health hub, and a new secondary school, which will open in September.
It is expected to bring up to 5,500 jobs to the area.
But Cllr Cowper said he was most looking forward to unveiling the new town centre.
He admitted he could not yet disclose which firms would be moving into the new centrepiece of Whitehill and Bordon – but would hope some of the retailers would be named by the autumn.
He said: “We are looking at between 20 and 40 individual retail outlets coming to the town, and many of them are signed up already. Some are still to come.
“We are in discussions with a major supermarket, hypermarket operator right now.
“We are looking at a rich and varied shopping centre.
“We have a number of retailers and other operators in the town centre signed up but they have all signed a confidential, non-disclosure agreement.
“I’m hoping we can start revealing the names of some of the brands that will be present in the town centre in the second half of this calendar year.
“There are some names there I’m very excited about. People are going to love it, absolutely love it.
“One of the annoying things about the commercial side of this project is we have to respect the confidentially requirements of the various commercial operators.
“What’s exciting for us is they see this as competitive edge – they don’t want everyone knowing about their interest because to them coming to Whitehill and Bordon is a huge advantage. Yes, it’s annoying that we can’t disclose this information, as we would love to, but what a tribute to the town and its evolution that the hard-nosed world of commerce sees this as such an advantage.”
He said the project was on course to be delivered on time, and within budget.
He said a lot of work had been done to ensure the area’s wildlife was protected, and that thousands of trees had been planted to replace those which had to be cut down to make way for the new homes.
He also said negotiations with a cinema operator had reached an advanced stage.
“We are in very advanced discussions with a six-screen operator and that cinema complex will be surrounded by a food court for a really nice night-time economy, a great place for families to go to enjoy themselves in the evening, to watch a movie and have a nice bite to eat.”
Farnham has also revealed plans for a six-screen cinema, but Cllr Cowper doesn’t envisage any problems. “We are a cinema desert at the moment – there isn’t too much to do around here in the evenings,” he said.
“I’m delighted for Farnham and I wish them well with their cinema project but I don’t think it is going to steal business or customers from our cinema project here.
“The town centre also includes the health hub. With the considerable uncertainty, to put it mildly, surrounding the Chase Hospital, we are really excited to say that within the town centre concept is a state-of-the-art health hub, probably with a development value of about £25m, to include a GPs’ surgery, dementia unit, care unit, diagnostics centre, pharmacy and their own shops as well.
“At the southern end of the town centre is the leisure centre, and that will be on stream in 2020 as well and is worth about £10m.
“As a town centre it is very varied and functionally rich. We are on track to provide something very spectacular.”
* Read the full interview with Cllr Cowper in this week’s Bordon Herald.
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