Retail therapy: Wrexham’s Eagles Meadow shopping centre has provoked major local controversy during its brief history. David Thame reports
There are good times to open a shopping centre -and October 2008 wasnot one of them. There are also good times to sell a shopping centre -and January 2009 wasn’t one of those, either.
Wrexham’s 400,000 sq ft Eagles Meadow shopping centre opened its doors last autumn to a world more hostile and complicated than developer Wilson Bowden had ever imagined. A sale forced on Wilson Bowden by its new owner, Barratt, revealed that what had once been regarded -and funded -as a £100m-£115m project had turned into a more modest £79m retail scheme.
The 400,000 sq ft centre was acquired by CB Richard Ellis on behalf of a fund of LaSalle Investment Management, which must be hugging itself at the thought of the bargain it has picked up.
And, despite an impressive lettings record -just 33,000 sq ft is still unoccupied, and half of that is under offer -Eagles Meadow has had to endure some bleak local press in its nine months of trading.
Critics say it is too big, too far from the town’s existing shops and far too damaging to Hope Street, which was the prime pitch until Eagles Meadow spread its wings. It is now No Hope Street, according to those who view with dismay its parade of vacant units and discount retailers.
David Fox, partner at retail property specialistBriant Champion Long, who has recently traded buildings in Wrexham on behalf of clients, is among those critics.
“You only have to walk down Hope Street and see the vacant stores to know there is a lot of space available,” he says. “The effect is that rents in Wrexham will take a tumble and shoppers will get a whole street of bargain stores, which the town just doesn’t need to see.”
Research conducted by Drivers Jonas suggests that Wrexham had around570,000 sq ft of comparison retail floorspace before Eagles Meadow was built. The centre has almost doubled the amount available, and this was bound to be hardfor Wrexham to digest, he says.
“I don’t doubt Wrexham needed more modern retail floorspace,” says Fox, “but it didn’t need as much as got built, and it needed linking into the town centre much better than Eagles Meadow has managed.
“But, in the last few years, local councils all wanted to boost their retail provision, there was momentum for developers and retailers, and so huge shopping centres happened, with everyone saying ‘Damn the problems -we’ll sort them out later’.”
Needless to say, neither Wrexham councilnor letting agentJones Lang LaSallesees things quite like that. Isobel Watson, Wrexham council’s urban development manager responsible for the town centre, is defiant.
“The front door of the new Marks & Spencer is just 300 yards from the old Marks & Spencer,”she says. “As for Hope Street, we were aware there would be one or two relocations -and we weren’t alone in not anticipating the collapse of Woolworths creating a vacancy we’re doing our best to fill.”
Stuart Burdon-Bailey, retail director at Jones Lang LaSalle, is also dismissive. “To call it No Hope Street is just cheeky,” he says.”We have only 33,000 sq ft unlet out of 400,000 sq ft, which isn’t bad going.”
Burdon-Bailey adds thatthe vacancies in Hope Street occurred in the midst of a severe downturn that hitthe fortunes of high streets everywhere.
“Wrexham has a good, affluent catchment area and there was real demand for more space from retailers, which is why we’ve seen so many retailers move into Eagles Meadow and simultaneously increase their floorspace,” he says.
The list of upsizing retailers is impressive. Marks & Spencer has more than doubled its 21,500 sq ft store by adding a further 32,000 sq ft, River Island has doubled to 8,600 sq ft, Dorothy Perkins has more than doubled to 8,810 sq ft, as has Next, which now occupies 32,000 sq ft. But Wallis and Top Shop take the prize, increasing their floorspace in Wrexham fivefold.
Footfall at the Debenhams-anchored centre suggests thatshoppers approve of Eagles Meadow, even if retail landlords elsewhere in the town have their privatelymuttered doubts. About50,000 shoppers paid a visit on the centre’s opening day and numbers have held up well, despite a cold winter and miserable economic conditions.
The eagle, it seems, is flying.
Football crazy?
It is a familiar story – a debt-laden provincial football club tries to lift itself out of difficulties by redeveloping its ground, die-hard local supporters are furious and a long, loud row ensues.
Wrexham FC’s plans to put 800 student flats and a new stand on its Racecourse Ground stadium have followed the script – almost to the letter. Recent interventions by Dragons manager Dean Saunders and Wrexham council’s decision to grant consent for the scheme haven’t calmed things much.
Three phases of development will provide accommodation for students at Wrexham’s Glyndwr University as well as a 2,500-seater stand and a multifunction area.
For Wrexham, this means more students spending money in the local economy. For the club, this means its hopes of making it back into the Football League – from which it was relegated in 2008 – burn a little brighter.
This isn’t the first time Wrexham’s ground has been involved in controversy. In 2005, both the High Court and the Court of Appeal intervened in a dispute about the club’s ownership during a period in which its holding company was in administration.
Club chairman Paul Retout says he expects an early start on site. “To get this far with the application has been an exhausting process,” he says. “The redevelopment is important for moving Wrexham back into the Football League and going for promotion back up the divisions.”
