by Jane Roberts
Lend Lease has dealt a body blow to Hammerson and Land Securities by acquiring a retail scheme in Solihull and preletting the anchor store to John Lewis Partnership.
Hammerson and Land Securities had hoped to develop huge rival shopping centres in Birmingham, and were both talking to JLP. A source said that the two have secretly discussed the possibility of pooling their interests in Birmingham – and that news of Lend Lease’s deal with JLP makes this more likely.
The department store had been looking for a site in the West Midlands for many years. It has held detailed talks about anchoring both Hammerson’s Bull Ring redevelopment and Land Securities’ Martineau Galleries scheme.
Both Hammerson and Land Securities said that they were “very disappointed” that John Lewis had decided to go to Solihull’s Touchwood Court.
A LandSec spokesman said: “We are disappointed by John Lewis’s decision to choose Solihull in preference to Birmingham city centre. However, we understand that this decision was based on its locational criteria to be near a motorway and close to the catchment of Solihull.”
A Hammerson spokesman said: “This underlines what we’ve said all along: that while there might be room for two schemes in Birmingham, the concept of two retail schemes progressing at the same time was a non-starter.”
The spokesman added that Debenhams, Boots, Next, Borders, Eddie Bauer, USC and Lillywhites were committed to taking space in the new Bull Ring scheme.
Lend Lease director Allan Chisholm explained that his company had acquired the development rights to the £90m Touchwood Court scheme after buying out one of its joint developers, IM Properties, for around £10m.
Chisholm said that JLP had prelet a 13,935m2 (150,000 sq ft) store which would trade on three levels, including the basement. The remaining 27,870m2 (300,000 sq ft) will be let as unit shops, trading on one level.
Gracemount, the other joint developer, will continue its involvement, but Chisholm said that the design would be reviewed, as will the role of the agents, Hillier Parker and Lunson Mitchenall, and the architect and designer, Benoy and Design Solution.
Chisholm added that Lend Lease is interested in buying the town’s conference centre site – which Solihull council has been marketing for leisure – in order to integrate it with Touchwood Court. “It would be a leisure village like the one at Bluewater, but on a relatively modest scale,” he said.
Solihull council has taken the site off the market to accommodate Lend Lease.
Lend Lease and Chisholm have a strong relationship with JLP. The department store is an anchor at Bluewater in Kent.
