The development of in-town shopping centres can have a major negative effect on high streets, new research has revealed.
The study, prepared exclusively for Estates Gazette Retail – an 84-page supplement published with EG this week – shows that the number of fashion multiples trading on the high street can drop by as much as 50% following the building of an in-town mall.
The research, compiled by Colliers International and Retail Locations, found that the number of fashion retailers trading outside Festival Place in Basingstoke, Hampshire, had halved in the five years since it opened.
In Plymouth, the opening of Drake Circus led to a 20% decline in fashion multiples outside the mall, while in Liverpool, the number of clothes stores trading on the high street fell by one-quarter following the July 2008 opening of Liverpool One.
Richard Doidge, director of research consultancy at Colliers, said: “The key finding is that not all in-town centre retail investment is net-additional. New schemes appear to result in a loss of multiple retailing in the rest of the town centre – through relocations or the shifting of the centre of gravity such that trade may be reduced in what have now become secondary assets.”
However, the study also reveals that the development of in-town centres can increase the number of catering and leisure outlets in a town. In Liverpool, for example, while fashion stores outside Liverpool One fell by one-quarter, the number of catering and leisure outlets increased by 23% and 36% respectively.
noella.piokivlehan@estatesgazette.com
