Aberdeen retail stakes are being upped
The battle of the malls in Aberdeen is definitely being stepped up.
The opening of Hammerson owned Union Square last year was something of a landmark with several new brands such as Apple and Hollister coming to the city.
Footfall has been impressive and informal chats with some of the retailers trading in the centre suggest they are happy with their numbers.
However the Scottish Retail Property Limited Partnership (SRPLP) - a Land Securities and British Land joint venture - is not resting on its laurels.
It spent £2m in the refurbishment of the St Nicholas shopping centre in 2009 and has just announced a £6m upgrade of the neighbouring Bon Accord centre.
The facelift includes stripping away the existing finishes to replace them with clean white and glass designs (as seen below) plus new lighting and furniture.
Glasgow firm Gareth Hoskins Architects has been given the brief for the update.
While Bon Accord has't exactly been struggling - recent tenants include Swarovski, Jo Malone and Hobbs - it is a sensible step to start improving it given the competition in the city.
With a shopping catchment of more than 400,000 - half of those in the ABC1 category - there is certainly plenty of custom to fight over.
I'm sure Aberdonians won't be moaning about the increased choice they now have.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Aberdeen retail stakes are being upped.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.business7.co.uk/cgi-bin/mt425/mt-tb.cgi/112046
1 Comments
Leave a comment
Authors
Alasdair Northrop
Editor of Insider, editor in chief of Business7 and business editor of the Daily Record provides his take on the big stories.
View all of my postings.
Scott McCulloch
Delivering a no nonsense view on the Scottish business community.
View all of my postings.
Andrew McCalister
Discovering the secrets of startups and venture financing in Silicon Valley.
View all of my postings.
Good to see some improvements to the retail in Aberdeen, but a shame that the costs of units in the city centre discourages smaller independents, and to be honest, retailers in general.
The farcical plans to destroy the city centre gardens, and replace them with... gardens, will see rates increase and further business driven away from the city.
The idea is to use TIF to fund concreting them over - akin to concreting over Princes St gardens and putting pot plants on the concrete 'roof'.
The previous (approved) plan to create a contemporary arts centre in the gardens would have addressed almost all of the issues and was almost fully funded.