Westfield’s shopping centre Westfield Derby has slipped one place in a league table of the UK’s most attractive shopping centres due to another new opening by the developer in London.
Trevor Wood Associates has published the latest edition of its regular report Going Shopping – The Definitive Guide to Shopping Centres. This report ranks Britain’s top 500 shopping centres on their overall attractiveness to customers, based on factors including their size, tenants, weekly footfall and other facilities.
Westfield Derby has been named the UK’s 12th most attractive shopping centre, having slipped from 11th in 2011. This is partly due to the opening of Westfield’s new Stratford City shopping centre in east London, although the attractiveness of the centre has also suffered in the face of tough retail conditions.
Other centres in the East Midlands in the report include Highcross Leicester, which fell one place to 18th; The Victoria Centre in Nottingham, which fell one place to 28th and is no longer ranked as one of Trevor Wood Associates’ ‘super-centres’; Broadmarsh, Nottingham dropped from 89th to 109th and the Grosvenor Centre in Northampton, which fell six places to 120th.
Across the whole of the UK, the research shows how the recession is having a big impact on the mix of tenants in major shopping centres.
High street chemist Boots is now rated as the leading tenant in UK shopping centres, climbing from third place in the table, and replacing ailing chain Clinton Cards, which dropped from top to 17th position. Struggling computer game retailer Game has also dropped out of the top ten, while new entrants to the top ten include Costa Coffee, Card Factory and Phones 4 U.
Trevor Wood Associates also shows how the recession has taken a toll on the pipeline of new developments, which is at its lowest level since this piece of research was first published in 1998. The retail property specialist identified just 87 proposed new schemes or major extensions to existing schemes that are thought likely to proceed before the end of 2019.
These include a 500,000 sq ft extension to Nottingham’s Victoria Centre, which may help it regain ‘super-centre’ status. However, as yet there is no timetable for development from developer Capital Shopping Centres, and no major tenants have signed up for the extension.
