Don Richardson (businessman)
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Donald "Don" Richardson (1930 – 6 September 2007) was a British businessman who specialised in commercial development in conjunction with his twin brother Roy Richardson. They were joint owners of the Richardson Developments partnership, which was set up in the early 1980s in response to the government's new enterprise zones to bring jobs to areas suffering from high unemployment due to de-industrialisation. Richardson is most famous for developing the
Merry Hill Shopping Centre Merry Hill (formerly Intu Merry Hill, Westfield Merry Hill and The Merry Hill Shopping Centre) is a large Shopping center, shopping complex in Brierley Hill near Dudley, England. It was developed between 1985 and 1990, with several subsequent ...
in
Brierley Hill Brierley Hill is a town and Ward (electoral subdivision), electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands (county), West Midlands (originally in Staffordshire), England. It is located south of Dudley and north of Stourbr ...
, West Midlands,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. He was born just a few streets away from the Round Oak Steel Works that once occupied part of the huge Merry Hill site, and when the steel works closed in December 1982 (with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs), the Richardson brothers set about revamping the site. By 1985, barely two years after the closure of Round Oak, the Richardsons had already constructed the first two phases of the Merry Hill development - part of an enterprise zone that would be free of rates for 10 years under government initiatives to regenerate areas plagued with high levels of unemployment due to a decline in the manufacturing industry. By 1989, the Richardsons had created one of
Europe's Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
largest shopping centres, which also incorporated fast food outlets, a cinema and a petrol station. They officially opened the final phase of the complex on 14 November 1989. Richardson died of cancer in September 2007 at the age of 77. He was survived by his wife Ann and his brother Roy.


References


Obituary, ''Financial Times'', 13 September 2007


* ttps://www.richardsons.co.uk/ www.richardsons.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson (businessman), Don 1930 births 2007 deaths British businesspeople People from Brierley Hill English twins