NOTTINGHAM | Strategic Plan For Retail and Leisure

[danz013]

I've just been to this event and I must say, I am absolutely certain that Nottingham will remain way ahead of its competition.

I'm writing this on my phone and I'll write a full summary when I get a chance but in the mean time... Here are a list of a few of the names I caught who have requirements in the city centre....

Armani
DKNY
Harvey Nicholls
Miller and Harris
Gucci

And loads more. He gave a long list of retailers with about 30 names. Many of then names who have only one or 2 stores in the country. Fisher Hargreaves claim to have 350 retailers seeking space in the city.

[danz013]

So this plan. Great stuff.

It involves lots of things that will see this city keep its place at the top of the rankings. As explained yesterday, Ben Tebbutt starting off by explaing what sets Nottingham Apart from places like Leicester and Derby .. He gave a list of about 25 names... these included Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, G Star, Fred Perry, Ted Baker, Vero Moda, White Stuff, Karen Millen... etc.. He then explained that studies have showed because neither Leicester, Derby, Peterborough and so on.. even as far down as Milton Keynes, don't have any of these type of shops, they're forced to come to their closest friends. As we've already said on these forums, we know that because of increased developments Leicester, Derby, Peterborough and all the rest will be getting these types of stores soon.

So what is going to keep us in front of these other cities...??

Ben gave a list of about 20 extremely luxurious and exclusive brands. I only managed to catch a few. When I heard the names roll off I though I better take out my phone quickly and jot some of these names down. From memory, the list included names like:

Armani
Harvey Nichols
Gucci
Dwell (Who have know signed in the Pod)
Miller and Harris (Who have only 3 stores, one in the London, one in Paris, one on 5th avenue new york)
DKNY and so on.

Honestly lads, this list went on for ages. Many of the names he said we had never heard of, and he explained we had never heard of them because they were so unique. He made it clear the fact these unique retailers want to open their 2nd uk shops right here in Nottingham gave him complete confidence that Nottingham has a bright future. He also drove the point home that he was certain we could fill the Broadmarsh with many new retailers.

There are lots of specific things in the plans, there are lots of aims as you'll see in my article below.

Westfield will work with a college to set up a training centre for the unemployed, they will be trained up for specialist retailers who need special staff.

The city design guide will open up many areas, exploit many of our unused arcades, highlight our historical architecture and so on. There will be lots of plans to improve the public realm as a result of this plan.

It was specifically highlighted that the city councils wants another anchor department store by the end of the 5 years. Harvey Nichols seems like the logical choice.

The plan relies heavily on the Broadmarsh plans. As you'll see in the post below Broadmarsh will be the only way to fill the demand for spaces in the city. 350 retailers have requirements in Nottingham at the moment. After the completion of the broadmarsh (which the council surprisingly believes to be in 2011) the council doesn't expect Nottingham to receive any substation increases to its retail offer until 2021. Instead of adding on more retail space the city council wants to focus on improving our current weaker areas and turning them into primary spaces.. place like the other side of the square, the lace market, upper parliament street, back of Broadmarsh etc.

Anyway.. I'm pretty confident we're moving in the right direction.

The City Council unveiled Nottingham’s Strategic Plan for Retail and Leisure yesterday.

The promising plan aims to keep Nottingham at the top of the retail rankings by bringing businesses, training organisations, the city council, and developers together to improve Nottingham’s retail experience.

Ben Tebbutt of Fisher Hargreaves spoke of the importance of the Broadmarsh development to the plan. He explained that there are 350 retailers waiting to take up spaces within the city. “These include big name retailers such as Armani, Harvey Nichols, Miller Harris, Dwell, DKNY, Gucci and many more”.

‘Can we let it? Yes, I believe the demand is definitely here’.

The Broadmarsh Centre is expected to provide space for 400 retailers and will largely satisfy the current demand for space in Nottingham. The City Council believe there is demand for an additional 120,000 sq m of retail space. The Broadmarsh development will provide 136,000 sq m. Once completed it is not expected that the City will require any additional retail development until 2021. In-between now and then, Nottingham will focus on strengthening it weaker retailing areas.

The plan outlined some of Nottingham’s weaknesses. These included the lack of a Upmarket fashion department store such as Harvey Nichols or Selfridges, Lack of Piazza Culture (under exploitation of squres/open spaces), Our Arts/Culture offer not perceived as having any national significance, and finally the fact that our retail offer lacks a specialist reputation in the same way Leeds or Manchester does.

The City Council also clearly showed how Nottingham will get around these weaknesses. The ongoing City Design Guide aims to bring the best out of all of Nottingham historical architectures, public spaces, and cultural areas. NCN College will be working with employers and potential employers to ensure that staff are properly trained for the roles they will be taking on. Our two Shopping Centres will be working together to ensure that the City Centre remains extremely competitive. Other aspects such as the tram, the train station, and various other regeneration projects around the city will contribute heavily to this plan.

[danz013]

and some interesting charts for you...

Nottingham's Primary Catchment area...

image hosted on flickr


Nottingham's Retail Core

image hosted on flickr

[Furrydice]

That sounds good Dan, look forward to hearing more....

In the meantime this is what the Evening Post said yesterday:

CITY'S PLAN TO BE TOP OF THE SHOPS
RICHARD BAKER BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT

09:00 - 10 April 2008

A Five-year plan to make 'Shoppingham' bigger and better is being unveiled today.

The Nottingham Retail Sector Strategic Plan has been produced by city economic development leaders after months of work with key figures into shopping and development.

It says the long-delayed revamp of the city's Broadmarsh centre holds the key to the expansion of Nottingham's shops.

But it says work must also be done to make the city's streets and arcades more attractive - and wants to see the skills of people who work in shops improved.

The strategy has been unveiled in the wake of Nottingham dropping down the retail rankings in a key survey as other cities open new shopping centres.

City leaders say it was planned before the drop, though, with retail and leisure pinpointed as one of five key sectors of the Nottingham economy where a clear strategy was needed to identify ways of helping it grow.

The strategy was being launched today at an event in the Council House, with the city council's head of economic development, Simon Green, joining key local figures in the retail industry to highlight its findings.

They were discussing a strategy that shows the continuing strength of Nottingham as a retail destination compared to some of its neighbouring towns and cities.

Leicester is the closest rival, with its key shopping expenditure adding up to 86% of he estimated £1.3 billion spent every year in Nottingham.

The spending in Derby, Lincoln and Northants combined adds up to only 80% of Nottingham's spending.

Nottingham has been a leading national shopping city since the 1990s, when the benefits of historic planning policies that blocked the development of out-of-town shopping saw the city centre gain momentum.

But city leaders acknowledge that Nottingham's national status as a shopping city means it has to work proportionately harder to raise standards.

Jane Dykes, city centre manager in Notitngham City Council's economic development service, said: "Nottingham has got a lot of strengths, but we exist in a highly competitive environment and cannot afford to rest on our laurels.

"We will only continue to set the standard by investing a huge amount of effort and energy in changing and enhancing the retail offer.

"We can't get into the top five retail cities and then think all we have to do is close the door. As we have seen, even major retailers suffer if they don't maintain their sharpness."

She added: "We are not starting this strategy from a low base. If we are already operating at 95% then this is about maintaining and growing from that."

The strategy, which has taken nine months to draw up, has involved key players in the industry including Westfield (which runs Broadmarsh), property agents like FHP and Innes England, retailers like John Lewis and Paul Smith, industry analysts at Experian, and skills organisations.

It will focus on progress in four key areas - attracting new, high profile shops, improving the overall quality of the retail experience in the city, making it easy for people to reach shops, and raising skills levels.

It plans to set up a working group involving the city's inward investment team and property agents that will identify and target specific high-end retailers that Nottingham meets the requirements of.

These could include high calibre names Betty's of Harrogate or The White Company.

Significantly, the study says the only high-profile gap in Nottingham's retail offer is a high fashion department store like Harvey Nichols or Selfridges.

Mrs Dykes said: "There are some significant names out there that we believe would be perfect for Nottingham. And if they don't say 'no', we should keep knocking at their door."

In an effort to raise the city's profile among major retailers and retail developers, Nottingham looks set to expand its presence at the MAPIC conference in Cannes in the South of France in November - the retail equivalent of the MIPIM construction and development conference.

The redevelopment of Broadmarsh remains a key component of the strategy, even though it still has no confirmed start date.

The strategy assumes it will be completed by 2011, and the extra space the £700m project could bring means no new major developments would be needed for another decade. The strategy says the deferment or failure of major redevelopment would be a risk to the city's retail status.

But Mrs Dykes said: "We remain confident about Broadmarsh and it has been identified as absolutely central to the city's retail future.

"Westfield are committed to delivering a scheme that is right and appropriate to a city of Nottingham's status. Our expectation is that Broadmarsh will deliver something on a different level to what has happened at Westfield Derby. What we have seen suggests something far more exciting."

While more than 9,000 people work in the city centre's shops, the strategy says qualifications among sales and customer service staff are "generally absent or low, particularly for women", while employers are finding jobs hard to fill because of low skills and pay.

One of the key points of the strategy's action plan will see the establishment of a working group to make sure retail training in the city matches demand from employers. It also calls for more to be done to improve the appearance of streets and the public realm, which it says is vital in an era when more visitors to Nottingham are looking for a retail lifestyle experience.

The comment on Broadmarsh sounds encouraging.

[Furrydice]

...

[mph12]

As an outsider seems to be mixed signals for retail in Notts.

From what i've picked up from the Notts threads. You have been finding it hard work to get tenants for the Pod and Trinty Square. Westfield appear to be dragging there feet and haven't named anyone particularly exciting for Westfield Notts.

Yet, you have loads of top notch retailers chomping at the bit to open in Notts? Are you not bulding the right kind of developments for them? I would have thought the Pod would have been perfect for Harvey Nics?

[Ranwolf]

I would think the pod is too small for Harvey Nicks but then again I know they said they were looking for smaller units. I think a lot of Nottinghams problems regarding attracting the retailers who say they are interested is that they want to see how the broadmarsh affects the shopping in the city in terms of the flow of people etc. What Nottingham has is a lack of available large units currently but also a massive change in terms of the retail market in the city about to happen but with no set date.

[kk_94093]

I fully agree with what Ranwolf saids about the uncertainty of the Broadmarsh development. Although I agree that in the long term, demand for retail space in the city is high, the indecisiveness of the Broadmarsh redevelopment is dragging down other areas of the city in terms of prospective units available for potential new retailers in the city to set up shop. A development as big as the Broadmarsh is inevitably going to change the retail dynamics of the city as a whole and I can't really blame retailers for waiting to see how different areas of the city will change in terms of retail trends. I am guessing that footfall across the different retail locations will change dramatically, and if Broadmarsh ever goes ahead and is completed, then there is a risk that people may just stay in that area of the city as akin to what has really happened with the Victoria Centre, but on a far less dramatic level.

Hopefully, Nottingham's strength as a fairly compact city centre and pedestrain friendly approach will help here whereby travelling across the core retail areas in the city is ideally suited on foot and therefore, the different retail areas will complement rather than rival each other. A good example is in Manchester where although its catchment area for drawing in people is large enough to sustain both the city centre and the Trafford Centre, the two prime retail areas seem more like rivals than complement each other. I have known people in Manchester to only shop at one of two places! which is a shame given the breadth of retailers available there.

[Furrydice]

Its spot on that Broadmarsh is the issue holding back those who have store requirements in Nottingham. This is particuarly affecting Trinity Square, which is only likely to attract retailers that are doing so well that they have an immediate need (unlikely in the present economic conditions) or brands that in the long-term will be able to sustain stores in the north and south of the city centre (most of these are already in the Vic Centre).

Re: Harvey Nichols - The Pod would have been big enough for them but it wouldnt have been perfect and exclusive brands like that can afford to be very picky. The main problems were that the developers of the Pod would never have been able to offer the same deal as they would get from shopping centre developers. And second, despite its proxmity to Bridlesmith, its not prime fashion pitch (this was recognised early on when the Pod was marketed to furniture retailers).

The Axis and Glasshouse were also going to take time to let because they are very much secondary locations.

[danz013]

Agreed, they can afford to be very picky and choosy. We'll have to do a lot of waiting, i'm not saying these guys will come over night but as furry says, they want the perfect spot, in the perfect space.

As someone has said before, the Pod sits in an unproven location. The Gucci, Armani's etc want places with high footfall. To be honest I'm really surprised Vivienne Westwood decided to open up into the new mall...

but lets check out the reality. In the last year 30 new retailers have joined Nottingham (according to city council). You guys will have to help me out with all of the names but from what I remember reporting (im not a shoppoholic like some)...

Vivienne Westwood, Cruise, Intimas (The one that Caprice attended the opening), White Stuff, The new shops in FH Mall, New shops in the lace market, Dwell Coming, Borders Coming, and so on.

We've have been progressing quite nicely.

I think many retailers will clearly be waiting for Broadmarsh to start. The fact Broadmarsh has secured M&S and Debenhams as anchors dosn't phase me at all. Looking at thing realistically we always knew they were going to be the anchors. They need space to expand, nowhere else in the city was going to provide them with that space.

I also think this is a blessing in disguise as I think the current M&S spaces, and Current Debenhams spaces are more likely than Broadmarsh to receive a big name such as Harvey Nichs.

I think the Debenhams units will play a massive role in the future. Especially when they're refurbed.

[danz013]

Heres the plan for you lads.

http://www.newnottingham.com/Downloa...gic%20Plan.pdf

[scooby01]

Originally Posted by danz013

After the completion of the broadmarsh (which the council surprisingly believes to be in 2011) the council doesn't expect Nottingham to receive any substation increases to its retail offer until 2021. .

From the sounds of that,it doesnt sound like we will see any extention to the victoria centre for a while yet then.