Visitors to Hammerson and Barclays’ flagship shopping centre, WestQuay, in Southampton, reached 386,000 within the first four days of its opening last week.
The 76,000 sq m (818,084 sq ft) shopping centre opened on Thursday with 86% of its units let (95% in terms of floor area). The centre, which is anchored by a 25,000 sq m John Lewis store and a 9,300 sq m Marks & Spencer store, also includes stores from Gap, Tower Records, Next, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s. It is linked to Southampton’s main retail street, Above Bar.
Sheila Sullivan, director of retail leasing at Hammerson, said: “It is a far tougher market this year compared with last year but we are still seeing WestQuay’s success in the huge number of people visiting. I am sure we will have no problems targeting retailers for the remaining units.” Hammerson has no plans to lower rents.
WestQuay aims to attract 14m people a year, a figure that concerns local agents who are convinced that Southampton’s roads will not be able to cope with the traffic. Tim Titheridge, managing director of City Estates, said: “With all traffic leaving by one road and no park-and-ride scheme planned, people are likely to visit the centre once and not come back. God knows what it will be like when the new sports stadium and planned Ikea open.”
Joint letting agents for WestQuay are CB Hillier Parker, Healey & Baker and Lunson Mitchenall.
EGi News 03/10/00
