It is a saga that has been rumbling on for the past four years. Developer Westfield’s plan to expand its 220,000 sq ft Sprucefield retail park by another 460,000 sq ft – in which John Lewis would take 200,000 sq ft – is up against Belfast’s retailers and chamber of commerce’s campaign to stop it for fear that it would have a detrimental effect on the city-centre retail trade.
Traders in the nearby town of Lisburn have also voiced their opposition – mainly to the planned additional 29 shops at the park, rather than to John Lewis itself.
Belfast is 12 miles from Sprucefield, and Lisburn is even closer – just a couple of miles from the retail park.
Apart from the effect on trade (see panel, p183), the anti-Sprucefield campaigners have long believed that John Lewis’s desire to come to the province should mean the English retail doyenne opening in the newly regenerated city centre – despite the lack of suitable space.
So determined have both sides been in their desperation to get what they want, that the battle over planning the Sprucefield extension, at present anchored by a 123,000 sq ft Marks & Spencer, has raged for three years.
The extension was first proposed in June 2004. Permission was initially granted in 2005 but overturned on judicial review. This decision was fought by a coalition of the Belfast and Lisburn chambers of commerce, Belfast city council, and the shopping centres at Rushmere in Craigavon, Bow Street Mall in Lisburn and Victoria Square in Belfast.
However, the application was approved again by former environment minister David Cairns in April, although this decision was to have been subject to a judicial review in October.
Scaled-down application
Now there has been something of a sea change. First, without explanation, Westfield and its joint venture partner Snoddons withdrew the application just weeks before the review, saying only that it will resubmit a scaled-down application later this year.
Second, there has been a change in the attitude of the pro-Belfast supporters and the traders in Lisburn city centre.
Dave Pennick, deputy leader of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, says that, while there is still a campaign to try and get John Lewis to open in Belfast’s city centre, people are now just happy to see what he calls the “excellent retailer” go to any town or city in the Province.
He says: “The whole Sprucefield issue is one of not allowing a new town to develop before other towns and cities are regenerated. If, say, John Lewis choose Derry and a brownfield site there to open a store, then we would have to accept that. There’s a 30-year gap in which the Troubles held back retail development here, and now it’s catch-up time.”
Certainly, other major retailers would welcome John Lewis’s presence in Northern Ireland. Asda has 14 stores in the province, employing 3,000 people, and has plans to open a further five by next year. A spokesman says: “Entry by John Lewis would be beneficial for customers in Northern Ireland as it would increase choice.”
Dogmatic in its resolve, John Lewis says it remains firmly committed to going to Sprucefield – and nowhere else. That position has not changed and neither does it seem likely to.
Few blame the London-based retailer. Sprucefield is unique in the province as it is located on the intersection of the M1 and the A1 – Northern Ireland’s only two motorways. M&S’s store at the retail park is among its most profitable in the UK.
A spokeswoman for John Lewis says that the future of the site is now in the hands of developer Westfield, which she admits “has gone quiet” since it pulled the application.
For its part, when asked about the withdrawal of the application, Westfield will only reissue the press release it first sent out in July, with no further explanation.
The carefully worded statement says: “The withdrawal of the planning application reflects Westfield’s and Snoddon’s aspirations to meet retailer and customer preferences, and to ensure Sprucefield meets its role as a regional shopping centre. In its redesign, Westfield will take this opportunity to review and modify the scheme.”
Reluctance to enlighten the market has inevitably led to speculation as to why Westfield withdrew, particularly after fighting long and hard for the original scheme. The Australian developer also owns the CastleCourt shopping centre in the heart of Belfast and is seen as a major player in the Province.
Additional shops
One industry insider suggests that a deal has been struck by Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who has been negotiating between Westfield/John Lewis and the local chambers of trade. It is thought the deal will result in a reduction in the number of the additional shops in the expansion, which were to have open A1 consent.
This, it is hoped, will halt the opposition and make it easier to get the application through. There is speculation that the number will drop from 29 to 10 in what one insider describes as a “watered-down version of the original application that the planning service will be happier with”.
It is also believed that, by scaling down its application now, Westfield can apply for another extension to the park in a few years, once the Lisburn and Belfast traders have got used to the idea of an extended retail park.
Property players could be forgiven for feeling a bit of déjà vu about the whole situation.
Eighteen years ago, when M&S first applied to go to Sprucefield, there was substantial opposition from Lisburn’s traders. But the then Northern Ireland minister, Richard Needham, pushed through the application regardless. Lisburn’s traders say that there has been no major affect on their businesses or city centre as a result.
The Sprucefield debate has been going on during a tough 12 months for Northern Ireland’s retail market.
“Belfast city centre has found it difficult, with a number of voids,” says Colin Mathewson of retail director Osborne King. “But it seems that, within the past few weeks, activity levels have picked up, and there has been a number of lettings proposed and more requirements for space. The market is turning a corner.”
He believes retailers were holding back to see how Multi Development’s £320m Victoria Square centre, which is only six months from opening, affected the market.
With the retail market continuing to grow, Pennick sums up the feeling. “Things change and are changing fast in Northern Ireland with new development,” he says. “What was set in stone in 2004 doesn’t necessarily mean it rings true today. We need to take a deep breath and look at new ideas.”
The numbers speak for themselves
The anti-Sprucefield lobby may have reason to be worried, after all. According to Jonathan De Mello, director of property consultancy at Experian Business Strategies, the effects of an expanded Sprucefield would have a significant effect on Lisburn, Belfast and the Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon.
Looked at from Westfield’s point of view, however, the numbers show exactly why the developer would want to stick with the original size of its planned extension.
In research done exclusively for Estates Gazette, De Mello says that from Experian’s calculations, which are done by analysing shopping patterns.
“We looked at Sprucefield pre and post extension, and did a gravity model. It showed that post development, the scheme would generate £200m more in trade, mainly driven by John Lewis. If it does that level of turnover, then Westfield would be happy.
“But Belfast will loose 4.5% of its turnover, and for a city the size of Belfast, that’s a large impact. Lisburn will loose 7.2%, and if some of the operators in the town are already trading marginally, then that means some of them could be tipped over the edge.”
De Mello says that Newtonabbey shopping centre will loose 3.5% of turnover.
He adds: “The way councils look at it, anything greater than a 10% loss in turnover would be unsustainable. From what we are seeing, Westfield is right to resubmit a planning application, which will be more palatable to everyone. The developer could add more space, and if it took it up to 500,000 sq ft instead of the original 757,000 sq ft, then the effect on Lisburn would be around 5%. But as the existing scheme is already 220,000 sq ft, it doesn’t leave much space in addition to the huge unit JLP would take.e_SDRq
