Blackpool’s candyfloss image may soon fade, reports Paul Strohm, if the town-centre forum has its way.
Like most UK resorts, Blackpool’s popularity has declined with the ascent of the cheap package holiday. Ironically, it has also suffered because increased accessibility has turned it into a day trip, rather than a holiday destination.
However, the town is fighting back and the town-centre forum, a combination of public-and private-sector interest, has recently appointed a town-centre manager to improve the resort’s image.
“As a town which, for a long time, has projected an image of a place dedicated to ‘kiss-me-quick’ hats and candyfloss, Blackpool has lost out to other areas. But the local authority has taken it by the throat admirably,” says Philip Jackman of Robert Pinkus & Co.
Church Street, where Marks & Spencer is located, is the main retail pitch and zone As are close to the £100 (£1,076.43 per m2) mark. One of the latest open-market lettings in the town was in Victoria Street, parallel to Church Street, where JD Sports took a unit for a zone A believed to be £90 (£968.78 per m2).
Mike Harrison of Town Centre Securities, which owns several blocks in the town including the Burton unit at 18-22 Victoria Street, says that rents at the sea end of the street are £91 to £95 zone A (£979.55 to £1,022.60 per m2), but adds: “Some people say that rents are nearer £102 to £105 zone A (£1,097.95 to £1,130.35 per m2). It might well improve – if you look around there are not many voids.”
AMP Asset Management’s Houndshill scheme, where zone As are in the region of £60 (£645.86 per m2), is the town’s main covered centre. Littlewoods is redeveloping the adjacent former Tower Shopping Centre on Bank Hey Street and AMP has agreed to a link between the two schemes.
Littlewoods will occupy 35,000 sq ft (3,252m2) in its shopping centre, a unit has also been let to Index and one of the two remaining units is under offer, according to Paul Brereton of Mason Owen , joint agent with Webster Dean & Jones.
Peter Broom of Preston & Bedford says that Blackpool town-centre retailers have not been hit as hard as in some centres by out-of-town shopping, having been protected by holiday-makers’ reluctance to wander too far from the traditional pitches.
Out of town, a 50,000 sq ft (4,654m2) Morrisons superstore has been built at Squires Gate Lane, along with units let to Norweb, Currys, Office World and Texas.
Despite this retail element, Squires Gate, next to the airport, is primarily an industrial scheme and landlord Land Securities recently let a 205,000 sq ft (19,044m2) unit to B&M Bargains at £205,000pa.
One of the main benefits of the recently opened Squires Gate link road was to relieve the town of traffic generated by the Blackpool Illuminations. However, Jackman, who is joint agent with Grimley on Squires Gate, says that it has also greatly improved access to the M55.
Near to Squires Gate, Matthews & Goodman is asking for over £1m for the £120,000 sq ft (11,148m2) Sycamore Trading Estate, where 60,000 sq ft (5,574m2) is under offer.
In the north Fylde area, Jackman says that Poulton Industrial Estate remains the estate with the most activity. Although there is about 50,000 sq ft (4,645m2) available, more than half of this is under offer in five potential deals. Rents are typically between £2.75 and £3 per sq ft (£29.60 and £32.29 per m2).
At Thornton Cleveleys, ICI Chemicals & Polymers is disposing of surplus land and buildings at the Hillhouse International site. Initially, joint agents Storey Sons & Parker and Bailey Deakin & Hamiltons are concentrating on sites between 1 and 60 acres (0.4 and 24.28ha) within the ICI complex, which are suitable for chemical or special industrial purposes – 100 acres (40.47ha) is available in all. A further 30 acres (12.14ha) is on the market just outside the ICI complex.
Alex Taylor of Storey Sons & Parker says that, although the areas has no grant status, ICI plans to put forward its own incentives to attract inward investment, which might include benefits in kind, such as the supply of component chemicals or labour.
ICI has already disposed of a surplus 100 acres (40.47ha) to Eric Wright Developments, which has built the Hill House Business Park. Shakespear Monofilaments has 32,000 sq ft (2,973m2) in the first phase, with scope for expansion to 45,000 sq ft (4,181m2).
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