Land Securities is not going to redevelop Preston’s St John’s centre, part of the Tithebarn scheme.
Richard Akers, Land Securities, managing director of retail portfolio said that the developer ‘very happy sitting on a small asset and seeing what happens in the future’.
He added: “We are not even progressing development options. We are just managing the centre.” Akers said any redevelopment would only happen on the site, which it bought for £5m in October, if Land Securities got a significant number of retailers on board.
The news comes only a couple of weeks after John Lewis abandoned plans to be the 25,000 sqft flagship store on the £700m Tithebarn development causing the council to consider a less ambitious scheme.
“John Lewis pulling out wasn’t a shock. We knew that was going to be the case,” said Akers. “Any big regeneration scheme is very difficult to execute. Tithebarn will happen. But it will be phased, possibly with retailers taking smaller retail offers.”
Akers said he believed the era of 250,000sq ft plus anchor stores was now over in the UK.
* Land Securities will not be expanding its Brand Empire vehicle which was set up in 2009 to attract new entrants to the UK market to help evolve the retail offer and drive footfall. Just eight stores were opened by the vehicle, but Akers said that a decision was taken a year a go not to expand, and that is still the case today. Akers cited the reason as being a difficult market and difficult trading.
noella.piokivlehan@estatesgazette.com
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