Land Secs in talks over sale of St John’s Centre

LAND Securities is in talks to sell off the St John’s Shopping Centre in Liverpool city centre.

The company has confirmed that it is in talks with an unnamed buyer about the possibility of disposing of the centre, but said that there was no certainty that a deal will be done.

The 360,000 sq ft St John’s Centre was built in 1969, and in March 2008 the company submitted a planning application to extend the centre by 120,000 sq ft.

However, the subsequent economic downturn and the increased competition from the opening of Grosvenor’s Liverpool One scheme meant that the plans were never realised.

The unit had suffered from higher levels of voids following the opening of Liverpool One, but had refocussed its offer towards the value end of the market and attracted several new multiple retailers such as the Home Bargains chain and German supermarket Aldi, which took over a prominent corner unit that had been occupied by Woolworths until its collapse.

The centre has benefitted from an uplift in visitor numbers as a result – when the firm announced its half-year figures on November 10, portfolio manager James Larmuth said the centre had attracted 9.4m shoppers, which was an increase of around 10% on 2010.

Visitor numbers in December were up 8% to 1.2m, and in the week before Christmas they climbed by 17% to 364,000.

A spokesperson for Land Securities said: “Land Securities has a plan for every asset in its ownership and sometimes part of that plan may be to consider a sale if it is deemed someone is offering a fair price.  

“We can confirm we are in discussion with a potential purchaser of the St John’s centre that may or may not lead to a sale.”

Land Securities also owns the adjacent 180,000 sq ft Clayton Square shopping centre, although this is not part of the current sale talks.