With the refurbishment of Arlington Retail Developments’ 1970s Haymarket Centre, and an extension to Imry’s two-year-old Shires shopping centre both under way, Leicester’s traditionally strong retail market is demonstrating increasing vigour.
The Arlington scheme will begin with the demolition of the 1930s Lewis’s department store, which closed on January 29, but the landmark 130-ft high Art Deco tower will remain. Arlington will replace Lewis’s with nine new large shops facing onto Humberstone Gate. It expects the redevelopment to take about 18 months and to be completed in time for Christmas trading 1995.
The developer is in negotiations with Marks & Spencer about the possibility of the retailer taking 40,000 sq ft in the centre of the development as an extension of its existing store in Gallowtree Gate. The other eight new retail units, which will offer trading on two levels, vary in size from 2,400 sq ft to 23,000 sq ft.
The £4m refurbishment of the Haymarket shopping centre will include a facelift to walls, floors and ceilings, the demolition of the tight, spiral car-park ramp, the erection of projecting entrance canopies on Humberstone Gate and Clocktower Mall entrances, and a 12-bay bus station on Charles Street. Stairs and escalators will be realigned, and the bridge across Humberstone Gate to the former Lewis’s will be demolished.
David Aspin, managing director of Arlington Retail, says that research indicates that a number of national retailers would be keen to take space in the larger than average units that will be created in the former Lewis’s. Reaction to The Shires’ 47,000-sq ft £12m extension, which also provides a new entrance into the lower mall from Church Gate, indicates that there is indeed a demand for larger units in Leicester. Prelets have been signed, at about £20 per sq ft overall, with Virgin for a 14,000-sq ft megastore, and with Waterstone for 8,500 sq ft. Healey & Baker is the agent.
Waterstones will trade on the lower mall, while Virgin will have space on both levels connected by an escalator. In addition there will be a unit of 9,000 sq ft and three small units of 1,000 sq ft each. Laura Ashley will extend its unit into the main East Gate pedestrian entrance opposite the Clocktower, and McDonald’s will also expand.
The new bus station in Charles Street, which was made possible by the demolition of the Haymarket’s notorious car-park ramp (to be replaced with a straight one), will make possible a 40% reduction in the number of buses passing by the Clocktower. This should benefit both centres.
Mark Kinkead, managing director of the Imry subsidiary Shires Leicester Ltd, says that the 475,000-sq ft centre is 100% full. About 60% of the floorspace has a turnover element, and several of the 80 units are held by tenants on licenses. Virgin has a 25-year lease with a turnover element until the first five-yearly review.
According to Kinkead, Leicester has a better than average demographic profile. He is measuring financial performance of The Shires on footfall figures, car park usage and turnover. Catchment analysis is aided by returns from credit-card customers of the two anchors, Debenhams and Rackhams.
For a “typical fashion retailer” in The Shires sales have increased by 41% in the year to December 1993. Footfall averages 250,000 per week, and car usage has risen to 15,000 per week on average more than 1993. He puts the upper mall zone A rent at £125.
About 90% of customers enter the mall through the East Gate entrance, and this has led some observers to question whether the High Street entrance to Rackhams is adequate, and whether there is a local perception that The Shires is expensive.
One of the few shopping centres to open last year was the £20m St Mary’s Place, Market Harborough, developed by Bryant Properties and Boots Development Properties on the site of the former cattle market. The 23-unit, pedestrianised shopping street is anchored by a 47,000-sq ft Sainsbury. Letting agents are Healey & Baker and Oliver Liggins. The development also includes a new 84-stall market hall operated by the council.
