Retail in Liverpool

[JUXTAPOL]

Sounds interesting...

Downing owner George Downing declined to identify retailers but confirmed he is in discussions with “major multiples.” And he revealed that new retail space was imminent: “We have retail permission for the front already and are in talks with major retailers. The grilles will come off and we will create retail space in the next couple of months.

tescos-looking-to-the-capital

[Chris B]

That would probably be a good place for a store. We were discussing a while ago the lack of supermarket provision for those living in apartments around the Princes Dock area. This would cater for them as well as the business workers during the day.

[eyeam]

Originally Posted by Toadboy

Bad move by the Met.

Agreed. Will probably make the place feel cluttered and a less pleasant place to shop.

[ramsbrook]

Originally Posted by Babaloo

Does anyone know how much money the New Mersey Retail Park (aka Speke Reety) pulls in. It always seems horrendously busy.

Details: http://www.britishland.com/newmersey.htm

I always thinks it's a pity that they didn't go the whole hog and build a full-on (not faux Victorian FFS, neoclassical?) shopping centre.

Its a big boy ...number 7 in the UK. Owners made a mint on it.

http://www.shopping-centre.co.uk/new...r_%A3209m.html

[Babaloo]

That's much bigger than I thought.

[Chris B]

Not good news -

MK One enters administration

* Author: Jennifer Creevy
* Last Updated: 21 May 2008 16:51

Value fashion retailer MKOne, which was bought by restructuring firm Hilco from Baugur earlier this month, has gone into administration.

As forcast by Retail Week magazine (May 16), MK One collapsed today and appointed Deloitte as administrators.

More here - http://www.retail-week.com/Fashion/2...istration.html

MK One has stores at St. John's and also The Pyramids in Birkenhead.

[buggedboy]

Hasnt this been bought by Ethel Austin?

[Chris B]

The women who has bought Ethel Austin, and also the homewares chain Au Naturale from their respective administrators used to be involved with MK One, but no longer has anything to do with them.

[Paul D]

VIP invite to new boutique
May 24 2008 by Tina Miles, Liverpool Echo

THERE was champagne, chic and celebrations as new designer store Amethyst opened its doors.

Amethyst Liverpool, based in the trendy Cavern Walks, is the first fashion store outside of London to stock exclusive brands Erdem, Camilla & Marc and 12th Street by Cynthia Vincent.

VIP’s were invited along to be the first to viewthe exclusive designer labels.

They included Hollyoaks’ Carly Stenson (Steph Dean), singer Liz McLarnon, actresses Sarah Jayne Dunn and Helen Noble and TV’s Shipwrecked star Anna Ord.

Guests were also treated to Amethyst goodie bags filled with unique and individualgifts including bath products by Lush, jewellery by local designer Claudia Pink and rings by Red Lotus.

[Chris B]

Originally Posted by Paul D

Hollyoaks’ Carly Stenson (Steph Dean), singer Liz McLarnon, actresses Sarah Jayne Dunn and Helen Noble and TV’s Shipwrecked star Anna Ord.

Who? I know Liz McClarnon was in Atomic Kitten, but am I the only one who has never heard of the others?

Anyway, it's good to see the city's longer established retail areas still adding new tenants despite increasing competition from Liverpool One and The Met Quarter. It's easy to overlook Cavern Walks with it being a little off the beaten track, but it seems to be holding it's own, which is a good sign of the strength of the retail offer in the city.

[Babaloo]

I haven't heard of the 'exclusive' brands either. I read Erdem as Ermdem and thought it might be someone made good from the precinct.

[Villiers Terrace]

Originally Posted by Babaloo

I haven't heard of the 'exclusive' brands either. I read Erdem as Ermdem and thought it might be someone made good from the precinct.

You have to imagine it being said in a really grating, camp, Canadian accent.

I graduated with this guy a couple of years ago from the RCA. He was a bit of tit t.b.h. but 'alright' I suppose.

No artistic talent mind. Expert schmoozer. Jammy t###.

[Babaloo]

Schmoozin' is what it's all about - especially in Londontown, and if that doesn't work try something 'outrageous' (prepare a press release beforehand, mind) and before you know it you're glueing 50 million squid's worth of diamonds onto a skull and calling it 'art'.

[flange]

Liverpool

The Hercules Unit Trust has leased the 4,950-sq ft Unit 8a1 on the New Mersey shopping park in Speke to Carphone Warehouse on a 10-year lease at £266,063 pa or £53.75 per sq ft. And Laura Ashley has taken the 4,950-sq ft Unit 11a on a 10-year lease at £235,125 pa or £47.50 per sq ft. Briant Champion Long advised Carphone Warehouse while Wilkinson Williams and Atisreal were letting agents.

[Chris B]

I wonder which units they are? Last time I was up there, the WH Smith unit was being worked on. I just assumed it was a full re-fit, but their website no longer lists that store. I wonder if they have sold up, and the unit is being readied for someone else, perhaps one of the above?

[Babaloo]

So Speke not L1 got Laura Ashley - well I never.

[Paul D]

Originally Posted by Babaloo

So Speke not L1 got Laura Ashley - well I never.

I know I was just thinking that.

[flange]

WHSmith is closed till August it says on the New Mersey Shopping Park website and Laura Ashley has taken the former La Senza outlet unit, am not sure where Carphone Warehouse is going though.

http://www.newmerseyshoppingpark.com...floorplan.html

[Chris B]

This is quite a long piece, but does a good job of covering the current state of play of Liverpool's retail scene, within the framework of the current economic downturn -

From the Telegraph -

Credit crisis Britain: Liverpool One crowns city as capital of shopping culture

With the UK facing a slowdown, James Hall travels to five cities in five days to assess the impact on different regions and industries. His second report looks at retail in Liverpool

Katie Kelly, her twin sister Claire, Rachael Fletcher and Heidi Gore are typical 16-year-old Liverpudlians. In common with their friends, the girls have a set routine every Saturday: they head into Liverpool city centre to shop. "Any money I make I spend on shoes or clothes," says Rachael, outside a large Gap store on Lord Street. The girls buy an item every week, almost without fail. Like most people their age they are totally unconcerned that money is getting tighter. "We'd still come out and buy," says Katie.

Luckily for the girls, they are about to get more shops than they could ever dream of. At the end of this month, Grosvenor Estates will open Liverpool One, a mammoth 42-acre shopping centre that runs from the Mersey to the heart of Liverpool city centre. The centre comprises 1.4m sq ft of shop space spread between 160 stores across 30 buildings. Its scale is phenomenal. The Queen will perform the topping out ceremony this Thursday in Chavasse Park, the development's open air centrepiece.

Liverpool One is just one of many new shopping centres being built in the city, which is trying to turn itself into the North-West's shopping hub. Liverpool is currently ranked 13th in the national shopping league and has a stated aim to get into the top five. Other large retail developments include: a £100m redevelopment of Land Securities' St Johns Centre, a £160m scheme called Central Village behind the railway station, and a refurbished Marks & Spencer on Church Street. Meanwhile, Topshop will soon be extended to be the biggest outside of London and a huge Primark recently opened. There is a jaw-dropping amount of shops opening in Liverpool.

But there could be trouble ahead. While the new developments bring much-needed regeneration to the city, their timing couldn't be worse as the credit crisis bites. Shoppers are tightening their belts as household, mortgage and fuel bills soar. Figures from the British Retail Consortium last week showed that clothing sales fell by 1.5pc in April. This is expected to get far worse before it gets better.

At the same time, retail developments are being shelved across the UK due to funding problems in the commercial property sector. Savills, the consultancy, reckons up to 40pc of currently planned shopping centre space could be abandoned or delayed over the next five years. People fear that Liverpool could be opening, or attempting to open, far too much new space just at the time when people start shopping less. Liverpool One is only 80pc let. And if the city's biggest shopping centre can't attract the tenants, there is little hope that the smaller ones will.

So just how is the credit crisis affecting Merseyside's shoppers, and what impact will the slowdown have on its myriad schemes? A wander around the city's shopping district suggests that Liverpudlians are still feeding their shopping addiction, even if the doses are less strong than usual. Drawn by an ever-increasing supply of shops, and spurred on by paparazzi photos of the city's own royalty - football WAGs such as Coleen McLoughlin - tottering out of boutiques with bulging bags, locals appear to be still spending.

Just down a lane from the famous Cavern Club is Cricket, the shop favoured by Ms McLoughlin and her friends. It is all designer clothing, exposed air ducts and techno music. Sadly Justine Mills, the owner, is heading back from the Sex and the City premiere in London, along with Alex Curran, Steve Gerrard's wife, so is not around for a chat. However, her brother, Marvin, says that trade has slowed a bit recently, and that hot weather hasn't helped.

"People don't shop for the first few weeks after it gets hot, they don't want to miss the sun," he says. The surrounding boutiques on Cavern Walk are empty, so I head to Met Quarter, another up-market development in a converted postal depot. Alas, not a WAG in sight to interrogate, although Michael Starke, the portly former Brookside actor, is mooching around Molton Brown.

The St Johns shopping centre, a stone's throw away, caters for a different demographic and is rammed. It could rudely be described as a "chav" shopping centre - 65pc of purchases are paid in cash and over half the stores are little-known independent shops (including Shu 4 U, Facial Attraction and Beverly Hills Nail Company). Coleen wouldn't be seen here with a diamante-encrusted bargepole. Nonetheless it is busy. Ian MacGillivray, the centre's manager, says that St Johns' catchment area is terraced houses on the outskirts of the city. The centre has 16m visitors a year, and most shoppers visit three times a week. He says that the centre "mirrors" the local population.

The centre is proving to be resistant to the economic slowdown. "I wouldn't say we are immune to the economic environment but because of the type of customer we have we don't get that affected here. We are more affected by local issues," he says in his office behind Wilkinsons.

The reason for Liverpool's current retail boom is rooted in history. For decades the city had virtually no money spent on it, meaning that rival cities, particularly Manchester, leapt ahead. Liverpool is now playing catch-up. Mr MacGillivray, an engaging local historian, explains what happened. "Liverpool suffered terrible economic decline from 1980, it's been utterly appalling. There was also a decline in traditional industries, and on top of that reputational damage," he says.

This latter point refers to the era of Derek Hatton, who became leader of Liverpool City Council in 1983 and was a member of the Trotskyist Militant tendency. Detractors claim that Hatton was unfriendly towards business and increased the council's workforce until it was impossible to finance. At the same time, there was trade union unrest in the city. Little got done and Liverpool stagnated. Consumers simply went elsewhere.

Until recently it was hard to recall that Liverpool was an economic powerhouse founded on trade, manufacturing and - disturbingly - slavery. The city's Albert Dock used to account for one third of all the world's trade before slow decline set in. It is no wonder that the city is relishing the chance to modernise.

"When I came back to Liverpool in 1995 after living elsewhere nothing had changed since I was at the polytechnic here decades before. It still had that down-at-heel look and feeling of abandonment. Since then everything has changed so quickly," says Mr MacGillivray, who believes all the new shops are just what are needed.

Retail developments are not all that are going on in Liverpool, which is this year's European Capital of Culture. The new Kings Dock Arena and Conference Centre are being built on the waterfront, next to the half-built Museum of Liverpool and close to where the huge One Park West residential tower is being finished. Peel Holdings, the company that owns Liverpool's John Lennon airport, owns hundreds of acres of land along the Mersey's docks and has a "50-year vision" (and billions of pounds) to transform it. Peel has a New York/New Jersey vision for either side of the river. There is also the proposed £112m Mann Island mixed-use development on the waterfront. It is huge growth from a low base.

And it is working. Liverpool's docks are now the busiest they've been since Empire. But making up for past inadequacies will not make Liverpool downturn-proof. Jack Stopforth, chief executive of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, says that the local economy is doing well. "We are not actually seeing any dramatic impact [of the credit crunch] locally. Whether the impact is waiting around the next corner, I don't know," he says. "Retail has held up but with national trends. If you are a women's fashion chain at the moment, it is dire. But it is the same everywhere. The only high-profile failure we've had due to the credit crunch is Ethel Austin [which went into administration]. By and large the big retailers are saying 'bring it on'."

Joanne Jennings, the chief executive of Liverpool One, says that the centre will be around long after the credit crisis has disappeared. "For that reason we think the credit crunch in Liverpool won't have an adverse impact," she says as she shows me around the centre. It is mightily impressive and architecturally stunning. It is also huge, the size of a town itself. "There is a recognition that Liverpool badly needs this level of investment. Liverpool really, really needs new shops. Any economic pessimism has been offset by the excitement that this is happening," says Ms Jennings.

Out on the street, I ask three trendily-dressed pensioners if they think that Liverpool has too many shops. "Oh no, there can't be too many shops," comes the reply. But what about the credit crisis? Aren't you worried? "I am very concerned about the slowdown in the economy. Will it stop us shopping? Oh no," says one of them, Mary Taffe. "We like Primark, that's my favourite store," says her friend Josie. And off they shuffle to another store. Perhaps Liverpool will be all right.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...120.xml&page=1

[ramsbrook]

Originally Posted by Babaloo

So Speke not L1 got Laura Ashley - well I never.

Not quite true - Laura Ashley been open in Speke about 6months. This article must be just confirming the long lease deals. I would be surprised if they dont open in Liverpool One - maybe in phase 2 or one of the stores who will open a few months after the whole thing is open - waiting to see how successful it is.