Meadowhall £50m Refurbishment for 25th Birthday

RNS Number : 6996H

British Land Co PLC

18 March 2015

 



Meadowhall Celebrates 25 Years of Bringing People Together with £50m Refurbishment

British Land announces that Meadowhall, Yorkshire's premier shopping destination, celebrates its 25th birthday this year and will be marking the occasion with a substantial £50 million internal refurbishment.

The refurbishment is set to commence in autumn 2015 and will be completed by the end of 2017. The extensive works will create distinct districts within the centre, each with a different finish including wood and punctured metal. The works will also enable a number of retailers to install double height shop fronts.

The refurbishment includes new way finding, mall seating and lighting as well as the installation of dramatic lighting artwork.

The works will largely be completed out of hours to enable all retail and leisure operators to trade throughout the period.

The refurbishment will help reposition Meadowhall ensuring it remains a modern shopping environment which is locally preferred by both retailers and consumers.

Claire Barber, Head of Shopping Centre Asset Management for British Land, said: "Across the retail portfolio, we are investing in our assets to ensure they reflect the way people shop today. The refurbishment of Meadowhall will reposition the centre to appeal to premium and lifestyle retailers as well as a broader range of customers. We are very excited about the future for Meadowhall and the experience this investment will create for both our customers and retailers."

The Park Lane area of Meadowhall has recently undergone a £3 million refresh, following which it has successfully attracted a number of new retailers, including The White Company (4,272 sq ft, 10 year lease), Jigsaw (2,282 sq ft, 10 year lease) and White Stuff (5,216 sq ft, 10 year lease). Meadowhall's premium offer already includes LK Bennett, Reiss and Kurt Geiger.

Overall, Meadowhall has secured over 40,000 sq ft of new lettings recently, including:

-      Size? (3,193 sq ft, 10 year lease)

-      Liam Gallagher's brand Pretty Green (2,194 sq ft, 10 year lease) taking a permanent lease following a 12 month temporary letting

-      Cadenzza (1,155 sq ft, 10 year lease) taking its second store outside of London

-      Smiggle (740 sq ft, 10 year lease) taking its first store in Yorkshire

-      Lola & Grace (471 sq ft, 10 year lease) taking its first store in Yorkshire

-      Nomination (43 sq ft kiosk, 5 year lease).

Restaurant lettings include;

-      Nando's upsize to larger unit (5,213 sq ft, 10 year lease)

-      Wagamama upsize to larger unit (3,579 sq ft, 20 year lease)

-      Five Guys (3,162 sq ft, 10 year lease).

Over the past 25 years, Meadowhall has welcomed almost 610 million customers. The centre opened with 284 retailers and now has 310 shops including Victoria's Secret, Ted Baker, Karen Millen, Zara, Topshop, Primark and Next and 50 restaurants and cafes. Brands that have traded since opening day include Topshop/Topman, M&S, Next, House of Fraser and Debenhams.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                      020 7467 2942

Media

Pip Wood, British Land                                                        020 7467 2838

Jackie Whitaker, British Land                                               020 7467 3449

Naomi Galt, FTI Consulting                                                  020 3727 1182

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                                         020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors

About Meadowhall Shopping Centre

Meadowhall is one of only six super-regional shopping centres in the UK.  Located on junction 34 of the M1, the centre has 1.4 million sq ft of prime retail and leisure space developed on the site of a former steelworks and attracts over 25 million shoppers a year.  The centre, opened in 1990, is built on levels within a crescent-shaped mall and comprises 310 shops let to a broad range of popular international, national and local retail brands. The leisure offer now boasts 50 restaurants and cafes and an 11-screen cinema. The centre also benefits from 12,000 free car parking spaces, as well as the centre's own public transport interchange for local and regional bus, train and Supertram services that run throughout the day.

Meadowhall is jointly owned by British Land and Norges Bank Investment Management.  

Further details can be found on the Meadowhall website at www.meadowhall.co.uk.

About British Land

We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £19.0 billion (British Land share of which is £12.8 billion), as valued at 30 September 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 340 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 54% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across retail parks, superstores, shopping centres, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 46% of our portfolio is focused on London.  We have an attractive mix of high quality buildings in well managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.9 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier city office campus (50% share). Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

 

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