Winning bidder will have to reimburse losers for £200m Rochdale redevelopment

The developer that wins the £200m contract to redevelop Rochdale town centre will have to pay £50,000 to the other shortlisted parties, as part of an incentive scheme cooked up by the council.

Rochdale Borough Council made the decision in order to attract developers to make the investment to tender. The £50,000 will be a contribution towards tendering costs.

Councillor Alan Taylor, chair of Rochdale town centre committee said the idea was a result of feedback from developers at an open day.

He added: “We appreciate that it’s a tough economic climate for developers at the moment and the competitive dialogue process needed for a development area of this size does require a large investment for the developers that make it through to the shortlist stage.”

The winning developers will be tasked with redeveloping nine hectares of council owned land for retail, leisure, public realm and car parking with potential for offices and homes.

The additional brief, to accompany the OJEU published on 18 June, has been developed in consultation with the Homes and Communities Agency.

John Hudson, chief executive of Rochdale Development Agency said: “Market research has shown that by the time we will have the redevelopment site cleared in 2012, we will be in a prime position to attract retailers to the town centre. It will be a great year for the borough with the arrival of Metrolink and a new £60m council headquarters along with library and office space for thousands of workers.”