BaDC-1727 Retford Buttermarket Food Hall Operator Opportunity

Bassetlaw District Council (the Council) wishes to invite tenders to appoint a suitably experienced operator to occupy and operate an indoor street food market within the Retford Town Hall's Buttermarket.

The operator will be responsible for all aspects of delivery, vendor management and commercial performance, in return for the right to trade from the premises and an opportunity to influence the final design and fit-out of the space.

The Council's objectives in appointing an operator are to:

• Animate and activate Retford town centre
• Support independent and start-up food businesses
• Provide a high-quality, diverse and affordable food offer
• Increase footfall and dwell time
• Support the evening and weekend economy
• Deliver social and economic value for the local area

The Buttermarket is anticipated to be available to the operator for commercial operation from Winter 2026/Spring 2027 subject to detailed design agreement and construction programme. The Council envisions the successful provider from this tender to join as a partner through this design process. This interim period for design and Council construction will ensure the final installation is fit for purpose and encourages optimal commercial operation for the appointed end user.

Location

Located on the Market Square, Retford Town Hall is well positioned to amplify the offerings of the town, however, the site is currently greatly underutilised, and its facilities require significant modernisation. The Buttermarket is the ground floor premise of the wider Retford Town Hall with its own level and independent access along the Town Hall Yard and direct access to the Market Square. There is ample area (~260m2) to enhance this space to provide a series of catering focused opportunities while also creating an inclusive communal space, designed to host events that appeal across all age groups.

According to a recent market summary of Retford undertaken by CACI, the town boasts a sizable catchment area with a total market potential of £122.1 million. Additionally, Retford enjoys a high catchment market share of 16%, indicating a strong local spend for retailers and food businesses opening in the town centre. The total market potential for catering alone is £30.1 million.

The overall spend remains below the regional average, indicating a need for Retford to build up a critical mass of retail and leisure offer to increase its attractiveness. Annual household spent on catering is £2,060 which is 5% lower than the East Midlands average and spend on alcohol on premises is 10% below the regional average demonstrating there is available spend for these types of offers not currently being realised in Retford.

Mandatory Site Visit

Attendance at a mandatory supervised site visit is a condition of participation in this procurement process.

The site visit will take place at: Buttermarket, Retford Town Hall, DN22 6DE

Site visits will be conducted on 16th November 2026.

Bidders must register in advance to attend the site visit. Instructions for registering and arranging attendance are set out in Section 7.2 of this document.

Only bidders who have successfully registered and attended a site visit in accordance with these instructions will be eligible to submit a tender.

Please note: The Council reserves the right to eliminate bids from the procurement process (without evaluation), that are received from any potential supplier that has not attended a site visit.

Full details of the opportunity and the Council's requirements are set out in the tender documents.

Term

The Council would optimally seek a 5-year lease with a break clause at Year 3 and the opportunity to extend a further 5 years at year 5 (3+2+5 year agreement).

Procurement Procedure

This is a competitive flexible procedure. Initial tenders will be scored based on price quality as out lined in document 1.

Up to the top 3 bidders will then be invited to a presentation stage which will be scored out of 100 (the scoring for which is in appendix 5).

The final tender score will be calculated based on the weightings of the price and quality score from the previous round making up 90% of score and the presentation will form the remaining 10%.