St Modwen taps up retailers for £150m Project Jennifer pre-lets

LIVERPOOL City Council is set to ask the government to speed up the process for calling in St Modwen’s £150m Project Jennifer scheme for a public inquiry.

St Modwen formally launched the 80,000 sq ft of non-food retailers on the first phase of the scheme to retailers at the British Council of Shopping Centres conference in Manchester this week, with regional director Michelle Taylor telling TheBusinessDesk.com that she was “confident that we have the right type of offer to attract retailers to that space”.

The city council began its process of land assembly earlier this year through a series of Compulsory Purchase Orders in the area around the city’s Great Homer St market where there are nearly 200 individual site owners. However, there have been objections from owners of properties on the Taylor Street industrial estate, who have claimed that the offers made for properties thus far are not substantial enough to compensate them for their loss of premises.

“The city council has looked at the objections, seen whether they were valid or applicable and within the next 3-4 weeks we understand that it will ask government to move forward with a public inquiry process,” said Taylor.

“We think it could be this time next year before it (the CPO) will be confirmed,” she said.

The scheme will be anchored by an 80,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s superstore, and last week Liverpool City Council announced plans to rebuild Notre Dame Catholic College on the site as part of its £100m worth of projects planned to replace Building Schools for the Future.

The council said that it hoped to start work on the project by June 2012 with a view to opening the college in the following summer.

“We’re confident that we have the right type of offer to attract retailers to that space,” she said.

She added that she was “really pleased” with the Notre Dame announcement.
“It adds real impetus and puts people at the heart of the centre.”

St Modwen also used the BCSC conference to sell its newest scheme to potential occupiers, the Farnworth District centre bought in April in a £4m deal.

She said St Modwen had already begun talks with Bolton Council about redeveloping the centre, which would consist of a partial refurbishment, but also some demolition to make way for a new build element to the scheme.

“At the moment we’re looking for pre-lets. It’s about a year away in terms of lead-in times, so it will probably be a 2013 scheme.”

The company is also looking to extend earlier schemes with which it has had some success In Connah’s Quay, it is looking to add a third, 20,000 sq ft phase of retail to a district centre where it has already completed and sold an anchor 50,000 sq ft Morrisons and 20,000 sq ft of other retail units.

Moreover, it has also just handed over the units on the £10m The Hive residential scheme at Widnes waterfront – a scheme which was 100% pre-let to occupiers including Reel Cinemas, Widnes Superbowl, Frankie & Bennie’s, Premier Inn and Nando’s.

“Hopefully, the first phase will be open by Christmas,” she said.

The other major recent milestone has been handing over units at Etrop Court – the 100,000 sq ft retail and office building in Wythenshawe which has been pre-let to Wilkinson’s Netto and Manchester City Council. The council will move staff into the office element at the end of the month and Wilkinson’s has taken possession of its unit ahead of an opening. However, following the takeover of Netto by Asda (which already has a supermarket in Wythenshawe) the retailer is understood to be in talks with other occupiers about taking on the space.

“We’re really pleased with Wilkinson’s,” said Taylor. “We initially started talking to them around 12 years ago when we first started our partnership with the city council in Wythenshawe and they said it’s not the sort of place they were interested in.

“The fact they’re moving in now shows the regeneration capabilities that have taken place over the last 14 years. When we arrived it was a very, very difficult place.”

Moreover, she argues that despite the generally difficult property market, many of its schemes were finding tenants as they are convenience-led, local projects.

“The convenience and discount retailers are doing well,” she said. “That’s our marketplace and it’s a good time for doing business.”