Briggsy’s Property Blog:
ALLIED London’s move for underperforming mixed-use scheme Clarence Dock is an interesting one in the present climate.
On the one hand, sceptics will argue that the Leeds retail scheme – launched in a blaze of glory in 2008 – is essentially a ‘white elephant’, destined to remain devoid of character and tenants in the future.
Heralded at the time as a new and exciting retail destination, the development has never lived up to the hype and today only seven out of 35 retail and restaurant units are occupied.
Upmarket retailers have come and gone and even Starbucks, ubiquitous across the UK, decided enough was enough because of a lack of footfall and moved out.
The issue has been a lack of day-time footfall to tempt retailers to set up shop. There are plenty of apartments that see early morning and evening activity as well as Saviles Hall, which has proved popular for night time corporate dos.
The Alea Casino at the site is generally only popular with night owls and visitors to the Royal Armouries museum are visiting the location for a specific purpose.
It just hasn’t happened for Clarence Dock so what has Allied London got up its sleeve to revive its fortunes?
Well, the property development and investment company plans to turn up to 50% of the existing retail units at Clarence Dock into offices, and only convenience-type shops and new restaurants would remain.
It wants to bring Clarence Dock, which has around 100,000 sq ft of vacant restaurants and retail space, ‘closer’ to the city centre.
The company has paid a measly £1.5m for the 150-year head lease on the 1.2m sq ft scheme from Lend Lease.
One professional I spoke to this week said it was a fair price for “a worthless” asset.
But that’s not to say Allied London can’t turn things round. The group has previous after developing the successful Spinningfields scheme in Manchester and turning around the fortunes of the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury.
My feeling would be to transform the area into a ‘designer outlet’ akin to the McArthur Glen site on the outskirts of York which offers designer names at reasonable prices.
This approach, added to more office space, may get the pedestrian numbers to make the scheme work.
I wish Allied London all the best but there’s no doubt they’ve got a tough challenge ahead. And the economic climate we’re in will make it even tougher.
