Why is the new centre not being built on another site so that the existing building can remain open during the redevelopment?

Several site options were considered during the early stages of design development for the new centre. Each of these sites were analysed against a range of factors including Planning complexity/ heritage policy, capital cost, deliverability from technical perspective with sufficient scale, increasing connectivity to the waterways, degree of ‘on site’ service continuity and ability to avoid significant utility routes. Detailed evaluation against all these factors resulted in the preferred option to build the new centre on the footprint of the existing Forum.