Pillar Property has been busy with its two retail parks – Manchester Fort at Cheetham Hill and Crown Point North in Denton. Both are on the east side of Greater Manchester, but that is where the similarities end.
While local retail agents have nothing but praise for Manchester Fort, it is a different story for Crown Point North. The 212,000 sq ft retail park, due to open next month, is now fully let, says Charles Greenhalgh at GVA Grimley. “But it took them quite a while to get to that stage,” he says.
The consensus is that Pillar did nothing wrong except hit the market at a bad time. “Uncertainty means retailers are not sure where to go next,” says Greenhalgh.
Mark Stirling, managing director of retail parks at Pillar Property, admits that Crown Point North has been slow to take off, and that it suffers from established competition from centres such as the Peel Centre near Blackburn and Snipe at Ashton.
However, he points to a long list of prelets, such as Bhs, Arcadia and TK Maxx, which have signed up for Crown Point North, and believes the park will be an established force within six months.
Pillar says there is a catchment of 1.2m people within a 20-minute drive-time of Crown Point North, and the centre’s proximity to Hyde Central train station, junction 1 of the M67 and junction 24 of the M60 will bring in the punters. Despite this, Stuart Burdon-Bailey of CBRE says the immediate catchment is thin and the centre’s position means it will be reliant on motorway links to bring in shoppers.
As a result, he believes a lot of tenants will sit back and see what happens. He adds: “If it is a rip-roaring success, and if they get the mix right, then other schemes will have to reposition themselves.”
Meanwhile, agents agree that Manchester Fort will be a success. The 310,000 sq ft retail park has already signed up big names such as B&Q, Next, Boots and Borders. The scheme is due to open in two phases, with phase I ready in August. Phase II will complete next year.
Rents achieved have hit £40 per sq ft for smaller units, but are falling to the £30 per sq ft mark for units of between 7,500 sq ft-10,000 sq ft.
Graham Coward at Jones Lang LaSalle believes the difference between the two parks is that Manchester Fort has a number of small units that have attracted high street retailers that would not normally trade out of town.
“It is going to have quite an impact on the out-of-town market and will be the dominant location for out-of-town retail. The question is, will it take the cream off the shopping-park cake for the rest of Greater Manchester.”
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Christmas this year will see Harpurhey District Centre open its doors to a £20m regeneration to its shopping store. The centre, three miles north of central Manchester, will be renamed North City Shopping Centre and provide what developer St Modwen describes as a “transformation to a fairly average regional centre”. Regeneration will see 120,000 sq ft of retail space added in 22 units as well as an enhanced mall and market. Prelets have already been secured for 56,500 sq ft to retailers including Wilkinson, Bargain Madness and Farmfoods. It has also been agreed that Ethel Austin and Shoefayre will share 11,000 sq ft. Asda has already invested £1m into the project to revamp its store. Paul Batho of St Modwen’s development team says the renovation will give the area a new lease of life. “We are not just plonking down retail units. We are redoing the mall, car-parking and looking at cctv to make the area safe and secure,” he says. Batho describes the existing retail parade as “indifferent”. The new units will target “good-quality discount types”. The centre is hoping to draw people from the Blackley and Moston areas, and aims to replicate the success of the regeneration of Wythenshawe town centre, which saw its footfall treble. |
