Trevor Wood Associates has launched the latest edition of ‘Going Shopping 2015 – A Definitive Guide to Shopping Centres’ and revealed that Westfield Stratford City remains in 1st place in terms of overall attractiveness to shoppers, retailers and investors. Bluewater has moved back up to 2nd place and Westfield London slips to third.
Top 20 Owner/ Investment Managers
The research has also revealed that there have been 19 changes in the top 20 Owner/ Investment Managers this year, with LaSalle Investment Management replacing intu Properties at the top of the table following a series of acquisitions. LaSalle had just 23 centres in 2011, 33 in 2013 and now has 46. intu however, with less than half the number of centres, remains the number 1 direct owner and the largest owner in terms of total sq ft.
A number of owners and investment managers have been actively selling since the last review and ones to watch for the future are NewRiver Retail, which has jumped an astonishing 11 places to 5th position and now owns 26 centres. In 2011 NewRiver owned just 7 centres and only 14 last year. Equally interesting is F & C REIT Asset Management, which has never been in the top 20 before and has moved into 9th place.
Surprising results
Trevor Wood of Trevor Wood Associates comments, “There are some perhaps surprising results this year across the board. Liverpool One and Canary Wharf have moved up the table and several of the larger centres such as intu Metrocentre and intu Eldon Square have slipped down the rankings. Canary Wharf has risen by 6 places, mainly as a result of its Jubilee Place extension and we predict that another phase next year linking in with Crossrail could well take them up the table to 12th position
Premier division of shopping centres
“There is still very much a premier division of 27 shopping centres particularly leading the way. Many of these have plans to develop or expand their tenant mix, which will widen the gap between them and the other leading centres still further. Although, even these have ramped up activity with 33 of the 500 leading schemes having been refurbished or extended over the last 24 months. We have also seen the opening of Trinity Leeds, while newly built New Square in West Bromwich and Whiteley in Fareham have entered the top 200.
“There have also been 14 changes in the top 20 letting agents, 15 changes in the top 20 managing agents and an astonishing 49 changes in the top 50 tenants.
“JLL has retained its position as the leading managing agent, although Workman has moved up two places to second position. Cushman & Wakefield remains the leading letting agent. Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet in Ellesmere Port is, for the sixth year running, considered to be the leading factory outlet centre and Fort Kinnaird in Edinburgh has also maintained its position as the leading shopping park.
Changes in tenants
“The merger between Orange and T-Mobile has led to EE taking the number one position from Boots, with 304 stores. This figure is likely to rise still further as the phone company also acquired 58 stores from Phones 4 U last month and not all had been converted to EE when we completed our analyses.
“Costa Coffee has also risen to third position and has opened 57 units since 2011. Card Factory too has moved up the table to 6th position and there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that former leader Clintons has bounced back with 213 stores this year, compared to 190 last year. EE’s climb up the table however is the biggest jump any leading retailer has made since we published our first Going Shopping review 17 years ago.”