Afflecks enjoys new lease of life

WHEN property firm Bruntwood took over Manchester’s famous Afflecks shopping arcade in 2008 it did so more out of necessity than any desire to run the business.

Indeed, at the time the firm expressed its intention to only run the arcade temporarily, until a suitable permanent operator could be found.

However, after a two-year period during which the building has been transformed, it is no longer looking to pass it on. In fact, it is currently looking to boost the brand’s profile online and is even considering opening Afflecks-style venues in other cities.

“We’re confident it is working and we see this as a long term business,” said customer service director Rob Yates. “It’s not our main core business but it fits with our core proposition.”

The centre attracts lots of start-up entrepreneurs because space can be booked on a weekly basis with all overheads included. Several Manchester businesses, including Eastern Bloc records, started in the building (Urban Splash founder Tom Bloxham started off selling posters in there) and Yates said that Bruntwood is looking at ways of offering discounted space within its own portfolio “to make the journey where they migrate towards full-fledged retailing”.

Bruntwood’s buy-out of Afflecks Palace founder Elaine Walsh, who had started the business in the 1980s but had run to the end of a 25-year lease, was controversial, but Yates said that the building had been in need of reinvestment.

“Afflecks had run out of steam and it was being run down,” he said. “Like any business, you need to keep investing and I don’t think that was happening. In the end, we decided that the best way to save the name and the business was to buy it.”

It was the first time that Bruntwood had bought a business from a customer, but Yates said that the building – the former Affleck & Brown department store – was special.

“This is one of the five oldest buildings in our portfolio, so we felt a lot of respect for it,” he said. “We felt confident we’d been fair and that we’d done our best to come to some sort of agreement.”

Since its purchase, Bruntwood has spent £750,000 on improving the building, including commissioning artist Mark Kennedy to recreate mosaics which are being placed at the Tib St end of the building.

It also brought in Tony Martin, who had previously managed the market stalls at Peel Group’s Trafford Centre prior to their replacement, as centre manager.

“Tony was the catalyst in driving the business forwards, and it’s nothing like what it looked like 18 months ago,” said Yates. ” don’t think we could have got as far as we have without him.”

Back then,  said Yates, only 40% of the 80 stalls were let and some gangs had dealing drugs from the building.

“We did a lot of work in cleaning it up and promoting it.”

The building is currently 100% let and attracts around 18,000 people per week, although in a peak period during the October half-term last year this swelled to 36,000. Yates said that it is popular with start-up because space (when available) can bee booked on a weekly basis with all overheads included.

“There is still some more organic growth that can be achieved,” said Yates. “The whole fourth floor could be developed out.”

Bruntwood is also talking to a number of retailers about the possibility of selling their goods online via a transactional website, and Yates said that the skills developed could eventually allow it to recreate an Afflecks-style experience  in other cities – albeit under another name.

“As a brand you probably couldn’t transfer that but there is a model there that we could transport if the right opportunities were to lead us to the right places,” he said.

This would involve a fortuitous set of circumstances where the right building became available at a good price in an area with a high student footfall.

“That’s probably quite a bit further away, but we have the skillsets and the ability to start thinking about it.”