by Ian Austen

Developer Minerva is working on a new master plan for its Park Place site in the centre of Croydon, after finally admitting that its proposed £500 million shopping centre will never materialise.

Keith Yewman, the company's director in charge of Croydon projects, says talks are being held with the council on a new development.

This would cost around the same as the original Park Place scheme but move away from a total retail package to a mixture of shops, offices and homes.

Financial problems facing Minerva last year and a lack of progress on Park Place resulted in the council pulling out of its partnership with the company.

Even last week some ruling Tory councillors were saying at the Croydon Council cabinet meeting that the former Labour council's decision to get into bed with Minerva and Park Place was the worst decision it made during its 12 years in power.

But half year figures just published show that Minerva has moved back into profit – £45.6 million before tax – and with a growing optimism in the company, it appears keen to revive a major project in Croydon.

Mr Yewman says part of the problem with the retail scheme had been that the company had been embroiled in planning and compulsory purchase regulations for six years, stalling the plans.

With the ownership problems now out of the way, Minerva hopes any new scheme will get an easier ride to fruition, particularly, Mr Yewman said, as the economy should have picked up considerably.

He added: "We have been wearing tin hats for a while but we have now drawn a line under Park Place and are working on a proper master plan that can be delivered.

"We want to see a development which offers a mix and doesn't close down at night."

Mr Yewman was not being tied down to timescales for the site, which covers parts of Park Street, High Street and Katharine Street and the whole of the St George's Walk shopping centre, but he added: "If we haven't pulled these buildings down in four or five years we are not going to be progressing and Croydon will have missed the next development cycle."

In the meantime, Minerva is committing itself to breathing new life into the run-down St George's Walk.

Mr Yewman said: "I have spent the last five years trying to get the shops emptied, now we are letting them again."

He added that working on the basis of a combination of low rents with short-term leases of around two years, Minerva has managed to let all but two of the 38 shop units in the centre to "really good independent traders".

It is also lining up new tenants for the famous Turtle's hardware store, which will be what Mr Yewman described as "an Aladdin's cave, selling a bit of everything".

Letting the shops will be backed up by some refurbishment of the centre to make it more attractive to shoppers.