Trinity Leeds shining light as retail construction slows

YORKSHIRE shopping centre development Trinity Leeds is leading the way when it comes to new construction in the retail sector, research has revealed.

Colliers International’s Shopping Centre Development Pipeline has revealed that despite there being more than 34.2m sq ft of new shopping centre floorspace in the pipeline, only 1.4m sq ft is under construction.

Land Securities is behind the 1m sq ft of space being constructed at the £350m Trinity Leeds shopping centre, which is expected to be completed by spring 2013.

The research found that 2.45m sq ft of shopping centre floorspace has been completed this year so far.

The total development pipeline, however, has fallen by only 256,200 sq ft since October 2010.

The 0.7% drop is the lowest annual decline in the total shopping centre development pipeline in over five years and is the result of an increase in the amount of floorspace being added to the pipeline by way of new retail proposals or previously mothballed developments re-entering the fray, Colliers said.

“Although it is positive news that many of these schemes are now being dusted down and reviewed, it is clear that it will be many years before these schemes actually come to fruition, if at all,” Colliers said.

Only 4% of the shopping centre pipeline is classified as ‘under construction’, while the majority (53%) of new schemes are at the permission stage and a further 43% are yet to apply for or secure planning consent.

Greg Styles, head of retail development at the Leeds office of Colliers International, said: “The development projects that are likely to remain deliverable are those situated in a prime location in major towns and cities that have an undersupply of quality floorspace, a sizable shopper population and where the land is in control of the developer, together with convenience food store anchored schemes in smaller towns.

“We expect that many proposals, particularly those in medium-sized towns, will fall out of the pipeline as developers recognise that they are no longer feasible and the amount of shopping centre floorspace that will actually be built will be much lower than the current total pipeline figure.”

Sarah Banfield, associate director, research and forecasting at Colliers International, said: “Despite developers’ insistence that schemes are going ahead, in reality much of this floorspace is effectively still on hold until the finances can be agreed and, even where funding is in place, in many instances there is now the issue of expired planning consents and CPOs to overcome and the need to redesign proposals before schemes can get underway.

“Therefore we predict that there will be little new development of any great significance for at least four or five years.”