The Result

MMX Retail was appointed to provide strategy, masterplanning, development consultancy, viability testing and urban agency advice to boost the growth of Wokingham’s town centre commercial, residential, amenity and civic offering, as well as to improve town centre accessibility and movement routes.

With a view to changing the transect of the town from a triangle with significant leakage to a more linear town offering easier to navigate, the project can be broken down into four key components:-

• Replacing underutilised and unaesthetically pleasing 1960s-built town centre high street accommodation with Peach Place - purpose-built retail and leisure accommodation beneath intermediary residential accommodation as well as new public realm through a piazza activated through events and community uses. Retailers here include Gail’s Bakery, Waterstones, Oliver Bonas and Sit&Sip, intertwined with a bustling independent retailer community.
• Replacing underutilised brown/green space with the new Elms Field development, providing an Aldi food store, Premier Inn hotel, Everyman Cinema and newly landscaped park with 15 commercial units for a range of uses and independent business. The commercial offering is integrated into a significant quantum of new private residential accommodation.
• As part of the overall masterplan, the council delivered the Carnival Place development, comprising a new multi-storey car park and a new Places for People council leisure centre.
• Providing advice surrounding town-wide infrastructure improvements, including a new road system which improved accessibility to the town centre.

In spite of both Peach Place and Elms Field being delivered during challenging years, owing to the Covid Pandemic, both are now fully let with a fantastic blend of uses and occupiers. This is testament to the success of the developments and this is demonstrated through the awards they have won, including:

• Prestigious ULI Europe Award for Excellence, which recognises outstanding urban development projects.
• Royal Town Planning Institute’s award for ‘Excellence in Planning for a Successful Economy.’