Recently in Retail Category

Reports today that Aussie shopping giant Westfield has finally taken the 23-acre shopping centre-sized hole in Bradford to the checkout have come as no surprise to retail experts and Yorkshire property folk alike writes Mark Simmons.

After all, we've been here before: a sale was mooted in the spring and Westfield has long been coy about its ultimate plans for the centre. But when Westfield started shelf-clearing its interests in other UK regional centres earlier this year, most notably in Nottingham, it was only a really matter of time before Bradford dropped into the basket.

The 500,000 sq ft retail scheme, originally known as Broadway, has been a victim of circumstance and rotten timing. Owned by a succession of developers over the last 15 years, it has never progressed beyond a cleared site.

Yet there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the proposed centre: although the retailtropolis of Leeds may be a shopping trolley's push down the road, Bradford has its own large catchment positively crying out for modern mall space. The fact that Wakefield, another Leeds satellite, managed to complete a similar-sized centre last year (and in the middle of a recession, natch,) demonstrates the strength of retailer and consumer demand.

So the sale of the Bradford site can only be good news for both stores and shoppers. The scheme is as oven-ready as they come and could easily be ready by early 2015. One piece of advice from the retail bods: just take with a pinch of salt suggestions that Westfield will manage the completed development.

Picture by Tim Green aka atoach on Flickr

Newport has finally started to find its feet. The news last week that Queensberry had signed its leisure anchor for the £100m Friars Walk scheme in Newport seems to say regeneration is at last beginning to take it's first faltering steps.

As revealed by EG in this week's magazine Cineworld will anchor the leisure part of the scheme with an eight-screen cinema. There's a sparkly new picture of the scheme above and below is how almost the same view point looks today. Debenhams has already signed as the retail anchor and with the incredibly acquisitive cinema operator now taking space it hints that the occupiers haven't given up on Newport.

One agent said that it won't be long before Marks and Spencer makes a reappearance in the town. The retail closed down it's city centre store WHEN in favour of an out of town location, but that could all be about to change. Queensberry have said in the past that they are in still in a dialogue with M&S and it would be mad not to.

But what really gives everyone hope is the fact that Queensberry says it is in "advanced talks" with national operators for the ten restaurant units and has agreed terms with its main fashion anchors. An announcement on the latter is expected very soon.

Newport is still too often the butt of too many jokes. But if, as promised, the developer can nail those retailers then the pundits are going to have to find a different punchline.

John Lewis's long awaited store in Exeter finally opens its doors on October 12 and such is the excitement that some people have even taken the day off so as to enjoy this momentous retailing occasion to the full. 

It cost the council £15m to walk away from Modus in Newport. The developer had been planning a £200m retail led scheme in the city centre. Judging by the look on Newport city council's corporate director Sheila Davies' face, it was a tough but very good decision. 

At the recent launch of the London Hilton Wembley I caught up with James Saunders, chief operating officer of Quintain to talk about the 20 year regeneration project around the stadium and arena.

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• Pics: Hilton Hotel Wembley launches just in time for the Olympics (estatesgazette.com)

Fun quiz time. We've been having a clear-out at EG towers and come across no end of interesting bits and pieces. In the broom cupboard, along with a pre-recession Newport development pipeline plan (complete with a fly through DVD of how it would look by now), a very glossy brochure for Creative Sheffield's office portfolio circa 2008, and the odd bus ticket we found this. 

Here on the Focus blog we thought that Westfield's stampede into Croydon wouldn't be the last word on the redevelopment of the Whitgift shopping centre. It's something we've blogged about before.

Want to see what the Merrion Centre in Leeds will look like both day and night after its £13m facelift? Town Centre Securities has just released this short video. The Yorkshire-based developers got planning permission for the revamp in November.