The man behind the multi-million pound scheme to regenerate Shepton Mallet's town centre said he is keen to proceed with his plans – once the retail sector recovers.

Ashwick-based Stuart Le Gassick said he was still talking to landowners in the town and he believes the regeneration should be centered around a cinema complex.

Mr Le Gassick told the Journal his intentions stood following the launch of his latest joint new project – a commercial property venture – Redhawk Capital Partners – last week.

Some of the South West's most prominent property developers and speculators were present to hear his pitch at the Swan Hotel in Wells.

The Swan was chosen for the launch of Redhawk Capital Partners as it is owned by Kevin Newton, a prime mover in the venture who owns several town centre properties in Shepton, including the Academy theatre.

Guests included British Olympic Foundation chief executive Jan Paterson who lives at Oakhill, musician Chris Jagger, Mayor of Wells Danny Unwin and one-time director of the former Shepton Mallet Academy Theatre school Andrew Hambly-Smith.

Mr Le Gassick is deputy chairman of Redhawk Capital Partners, which promises to invest its clients' money in the commercial property market in the region and across the UK, a market which it says is about to boom.

In a typically bullish presentation Mr Le Gassick talked up the prospects for the commercial property market, saying that Redhawk's approach would be to invest in property that was currently not on the market.

Redhawk would wait 12 months for its fees on its customers investments – and would take nothing unless investments returned an eight per cent profit. Redhawk's website boasts: "A particular focus on off-market opportunities, utilising the management team's relationships with occupiers, principals, banks and government to gain access to off-market opportunities and avoid entering competitive bidding situations."

The company does not intend to invest in London, a market which was said to be too highly priced but instead would concentrate on regional centres like Bristol and Cardiff, where opportunities were, it was claimed, greater.

The board of Redhawk includes three of the prime movers in the operation of AAIM Capital Finance, whose deputy chairman was Sir David Frost, and which had invested more than £3 billion in ventures in Britain and Europe. AAIM suffered when Bank of Scotland began to withdraw from the investment banking sector in 2009.

The bank had to withdraw a promised £200 million in equity finance annually from AAIM, which caused the company to be split up, with Bank of Scotland taking the insolvent part, while AAIMs private investors took profits of upwards of 80 per cent.

Most of the Redhawk management team were high up in the management of AAIM.

In its heyday AAIM owned shopping precincts in eastern Europe, more than 400 pubs across the UK.