Kingfisher Centre proves top draw for SWIP

A MIDLANDS shopping centre is proving one of the most active sites in a portfolio of similar properties owned by the Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP).

The partnership said that across the seven centres it currently operated there had been more than 80 lets completed this year.
 
Leading the way is the partnership’s biggest development – Kingfisher Shopping Centre, Redditch.

The 1m sq ft centre has just let the former Woolworths unit to New Look and the fashion store is aiming for a pre-Christmas opening. The other big signing of 2010 is JD Sports, which is taking a newly configured 5,000 sq ft store.

SWIP has invested several million pounds in the refurbishment of the centre in the past two years, particularly in improvements to its four car parks.

The second largest centre in the group portfolio is Bury’s Mill Gate Shopping Centre, at just over 400,000 sq ft. The centre has faced stiff competition this summer but despite this it has consolidated its position as the town’s shopping centre – and has landed six new retailers in as many months including Costa, HMV and a doubling in size of one of the centre’s original retailers, David Spruce.

SWIP has also invested almost £1m on the centre’s 550-space car park – and has plans for further improvements, including a link to the town’s market and bus station.

The centre regularly tops 300,000 shoppers per week on its footfall count.
 
In Banbury, Castle Quay Shopping Centre, at just under 390,000 sq ft, is the third of SWIP’s main sites. In the past 12 months, the centre has successfully attracted new tenants including fashion outlets New Look, H&M and River Island. The centre already houses branches of Next, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams, Bhs, M&S, GAP, Ann Summers, Burton and, most recently, Monsoon.

From the centre’s own research, it is drawing more and more shoppers from the affluent areas of the Cotswolds and around the north and west of Oxford.
 
Peter Webb, senior investment manager at Scottish Widows, said: “We have joint agents across the portfolio – but one consistent throughout – and that is helping us to convert a range of opportunities at local, regional and national levels throughout the seven centres.

“But it is the big three where we are seeing the most movement – and now have more than 34 retail partners consistent across Redditch, Bury and Banbury.”
 

He added that despite the downturn, week-on-week footfall on all three sites was consistently ahead of 2009 levels.

“That is testament to the way the centres are run, managed and promoted – and it also reflects the work we are doing to keep our retail offer fresh and relevant to our shoppers,” he said.
 
Andy Criss, of Jackson Criss, which acts across the portfolio, said: “It is about boxing clever – seeing the opportunity to find the space retailers want rather than trying to fit round pegs into square holes.”

He said this approach had paid dividends in Redditch where Barclays Bank had taken 10,000 sq ft of space over three floors in a newly created unit at Kingfisher Shopping Centre.

The bank has signed a 15-year lease and is shop fitting for an early autumn opening.
 
The remaining centres in the portfolio are: Abbey Shopping Centre in Abingdon, where SWIP is looking to more than double the 100,000 sq ft town centre site; the Market Shopping Centre in Crewe; the Castle Court Shopping Centre in Caerphilly; and Town Square Shopping Centre in Basildon.