Marks & Spencer is to lease 8,361sq m (90,000sq ft) for three years in Lewis’s department store on Piccadilly while its bomb-damaged flagship store in Manchester city centre is rebuilt.
The retailer has also agreed terms with the Co-operative Insurance Society for a lease on the former Toy & Hobby shop in Spring Gardens for use as a food store. The unit provides 1,393 sq m (15,000 sq ft) of salesfloor space and is adjacent to the new Tesco Metro, which is now under construction. Both shops will open in the late autumn.
The amount of alternative accommodation which M&S has taken slightly exceeds the 10,405sq m (112,000sq ft) provided by its store at the corner of Corporation Street and St Mary’s Gate which was devastated by the IRA bomb.
At Lewis’s (which is owned by Owen Owen), M&S will share the ground and first floors with the department store and will be the sole occupant of the basement.
According to Chesterton’s Nigel Fransham, the 46,450sq m (500,000sq ft) Lewis’s department store has not been fully occupied in recent years. Commenting on earlier reports that Marks & Spencer was considering taking temporary space in Piccadilly Plaza, he said Lewis’s was a far better location and the decision would help to keep the prime pitch together.
Cheetham & Mortimer, which advised M&S, was unavailable for comment.
Sir Richard Greenbury, M&S’ chairman, said: ” We remain totally committed to the redevelopment of the centre of Manchester and this announcement emphasises that we are here to stay.”
A spokeswoman for M&S said the agreement to lease the alternative accommodation was “an interim measure while our Manchester store is rebuilt and restored.” She added that the new store could very well be bigger and reconstruction would take at least two years.
EGi News 11/07/96
