Princes Quay has welcomed new centre manager, John Magee to the 300,000 sq ft centre in the heart of Hull City Centre and the UK’s first in-town outlet mall in a traditional shopping centre.
John, who has extensive experience in retail, has been brought on board as the centre moves towards celebrating its first full year offering outlet shopping alongside full price retail and leisure. He will be responsible for overseeing the next phases of the £20m renovation of the Princes Quay shopping centre and continuing to improve the centre’s performance on the back of a positive end to 2017.
Having started his career in retail management with Debenhams, he has over 15 years of industry experience and has taken on the role after delivering two consecutive years of growth as centre manager at Lakeside Village in Doncaster.
In addition to continuing the upward trend Princes Quay’s retailers have recently enjoyed, John’s role includes maximising and expanding on the opportunities afforded by the centre’s new outlet retail offer and linking it to the neighbouring council development, Hull Venue.
John Magee commented: “This year, we have a fantastic opportunity to build our relationship with our new neighbour the spectacular Hull Venue. It is going to be a superb facility and we look forward to a fruitful relationship as we work to attract more big names to the city. Building on the success of Pizza Express and Nando’s, we will be expanding the number of food and beverage operators in Princes Quay, and we are creating a new pedestrian link to the Centre which is an ideal spot for people to enjoy a meal or a coffee while visiting the Venue.”
Speaking about the recent investment that has gone into the city John added: “Hull’s year as City of Culture has provided us with an excellent opportunity to work with the community and council on various projects and with the opening of the new Venue we look forward to continuing this special relationship.”
Mickola Wilson at Seven Dials Fund Management added: “John is joining the highly experienced Realm team to add his expertise in the retail market, and he will be supporting our tenants in the ambitious turnaround of the Centre. His appointment comes at a really exciting time for Princes Quay as we come up to celebrating a year since reopening following the first phase of the repositioning of the Centre at a destination providing shops, leisure, food and outlet. We are delighted to welcome John to Princes Quay.”
