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Walesonline just retweeted the Echo's front page. It will go with 160 jobs. Didn't realise it employed so many people.
"Street Casuals" opening Wednesday in Morgan's Arcade. Opposite Route One!
There is a suggestion that BHS will open a smaller store in Cardiff sometime in 2013. Not quite sure where it will go if they can't afford the rent on Queen St. Capitol or Queens Arcade maybe? If they want to be a serious presence on the high street surely they can't be retreating from cities like Cardiff?
I really feel for the staff. What a kick in the teeth just before Christmas.
I'm not sure about the Primark rumour. It seems that the landlord must have another tenant lined up otherwise they would have fought tooth and nail to keep BHS in the current climate, even if that meant dropping the rent. I don't know what the terms of Primarks lease are on their current Queen St unit (except that it is eye wateringly expensive) but if the lease isn't due to expire I'm sure the lease terms will mean that they will be liable for rent until new tenants are found. Which could be for the full lease term. Plus they will have significant refit costs.
If that is the case then what advantage will there be in moving across the road? Yes they will have access to St Davids centre but the current unit appears packed to the gills everytime I go past so will there actually be an increase in profits?
One thing I've not been sure of is whether the BHS store is part of St Davids (i.e. the freehold / long-term lease is owned by the St David's partnership). It links to St David's but it might be owned by a different landlord. The reason for this is that the old St David's is always quoted as being something like 400,000 square feet. Debenhams was 130,000 before the extension, and if you added on Boots, M&S, and BHS, surely that would take it over the size without counting the other shops? On the other hand I think at least one of Boots, M&S or BHS must be part of St Davids in order to reach the 400,000 square feet quoted.
If BHS is owned by St Davids and Primark does not move in (although I do suspect they want a bigger store as the existing one gets so crowded that it turns into a pigstye, putting off customers, and hampering sales), could one option be to convert the unit into an extra mini mall? I struggle to think of who else would want a unit this size apart from Primark but one might be able to turn it into 4 - 8 units of various sizes and let those. I think before long we will see unsatisfied demand for small/medium size units in St Davids. The main problem with this is you'd have two entrances to the centre pretty close to each other. You might just significantly weaken footflow in the mall from the existing Queen St entrance, leading to more voids on that section: at the moment its doing pretty well, although the tenant mix isn't that inspiring. Perhaps there could be some scope for tenant management, moving uninspiring shops like Kingdom of Sweets, Deichman shoes, 02 and some of the crap in the Working St Mall to the new mall and the Queen St Mall, and up the quality on Working St. Given this could link towards House of Fraser and the top of the Hayes, this could continue the "higher quality" stores you see in the Hayes and Grand Arcade areas.
I always thought Frederick St could be turned into a sort of 'mini-mall' offshoot of St Davids. Knock down the building where Starbucks is and the building opposite where Orange is and then build a second Queen St entrance to St Davids on two levels.
I reckon you would have space for maybe 10 to 12 decent sized units on each floor plus a couple of decent sized units facing Queen St. The entrance would be just a little bit further away from the existing Queen St entrance as well. It could even be linked to the existing BHS building.
Not sure what the cost of redevelopment would be - maybe £20m? Based on 20 units with an average rent of 120k p a thats 2.4m in rent per year (assuming fully let) which isn't that bad a yield.
At the moment Frederick St is a nothing space with just a Greggs and an amusement arcade.
I think M&S, Woolies and Boots all had extensions built on to open up onto the original St. Davids?
Wasn't a mini-mall initially suggested when Woolies closed thier city centre store down but then BHS moved in from their building on Queens Street which then became part of ill fated Queens West?
Primark is a very good candidate actually. I know in other towns and cities they've taken over former Littlewoods stores and they weren't exactly small stores.
If Primark do move, what of the current Primark unit? That's a big shop to let and if it remains empty it won't be good for Queen St.
Who could be potential replacement tenants?
Far too big for B&M or Wilkinsons.. its about 50,000 square feet I think and B&M is normally about 10 - 15k and Wilkinsons normally about 25k.... I think someone on here already said that BHS would be moving from their existing store and Primark would move in... they then said BHS would move in to the old Primark Store.
Might this make sense? It's probably about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the existing BHS store. Still got a Queen St frontage. And, as its not part of St Davids, which now commands the highest rents in the city, it might be a bit cheaper per square foot. My only concern is that I think BHS has done well out of having too "shop fronts": the one on Queen St where you can see the clothes, and they have a cafe to tempt you in. And the one in St Davids which, at Christmas time, they put all to novelty gifts which get a lot of people in. With one frontage they can't possibly fit all that in.
I suspect Primark and BHS will do a swap. I can imagine Primark wanting a larger store in the city. Their Bristol store (in a former House of Fraser) is huge. It also fits with what BHS are doing in other cities eg Newcastle where they moved into a store previously occupied by Next and opened a new style concept store. In fact, the new Newcastle store looks pretty similar in size to Cardiff's Primark unit.
confirmation of primarche moving to St Dai's.
http://www.propertyweek.com/news/industry-events/mapic/mapic-2012-cardiff-secures-120000-sq-ft-giant-retail-star/5046019.article
Hamleys the toy shop has opened today. Shame is wasn't in the characterful old Habitat building instead of in an arcade warehouse box.
The Cosy Club Cafe is also almost fitted out on the ground floor (ie you can see it as you walk past) and is due to open next week.
Primarche.. I like it! lol
Anyway, will we soon hear news of BHS taking the old Primark unit?
I'd be interested whether Primark bought BHS out of its lease and part-paid with a swap? When did Primark open? Was it as far back as 2003? Because I cannot imagine their lease would be any less than 10 years.. and back then it may even have been 15 years (in the late 1980s 25 years was the norm!).
Anyone had a gander at the Hamleys yet? I'm intrigued as to what its like. The location is certainly rather hum-drum, but perhaps its made up for it with a good store design. But at around 14,000 square feet, it strikes me as a little small (about the same size as Superdry).
Popped in this evening (to hamleys), was rammed so difficult to look around properly. Looks to be done out quite well and extends back really far, a shame it's not on the Hayes though, habitat would have been perfect.
Armani Exchange is now open! Watch out for these band uf y'all want discount!
Primark own that building.
Poundland on Queen St are currently having a refit. Was in there today and half the shelves had disappeared.
Perhaps they are moving stock to the Poundland due to open at the other end of Queen Street? I had assumed that there would be two branches but perhaps there will just be one in the old Barclays Bank on the corner of Windsor Place?
I also thought that, but the guy on the checkout said it was a re-fit. I was going to question him further but decided against it because he looked like he'd had a gutsfull for the day. A position which we would also no doubt be in if we'd have had to work behind the counter in that place for 8 hours!
Pret a Manger are taking a unit in Capitol - the large ex-americandy store.
EasyGym, Tesco, Cafe Nero and Pret a Manger are all big chains, things looking up for Capitol?
In the context of the last few years it probably is a good result. I still wonder about the Capitol though - how much longer will the likes of H&M, Fat Face, Accesorize, Halifax etc etc pay for two city centre stores? I wonder when their leases will come up for renewal.
It's worth bearing in mind that Queen Street station is about to start it's renovation, which will entail a new platform and presumably a substantial increase in users.
The best thing Capitol could do is encourage itself as a through-route more. I always used to cut through H&M, but now that the street opposite the station (I don't know it's name) that leads to Churchill Way has been tarted up, I walk through there.
The Capitol don't help themselves with the miserable looking vacant former cinema that greets you as you leave the station. It's grim, grim, grim and the brick mixed with reds and greens and brown glass just screams 1992 at me. It makes you presume that the Capitol centre will be full of people in shell suits, eating push-pop lollies while chatting about Ian Wrights latest Arsenal goal.
You are spot on James. It really is outdated. The canopy needs to go and the Station Terrace and Queen St elevations really need to be re-modeled and either rendered or clad in something. It is definitely of it's time and unfortunately it's time was marked by a (thankfully) short lived fad of post modernist architecture which surely must be the worst of all the post war architectural faux pas.
Again like you I can't understand why it hasn't been re- modeled to open up a through route from the station to Queen St and so substantially increase footfall. I don't know how hard or expensive that would be but assuming it's not beyond the capabilities of engineering science as we know it or ruinously expensive its a no brainer isn't it?
There was an application many moons ago for All Star Lanes which I think was going where the old cinema is now so maybe they are holding out for that? That would have been a couple of years ago now though.
If the arcade was extended to opposite the station entrance, utilising the empty cinema, there would be a massive footfall and presumably high demand for the new and current units. It must be a consideration for the owners.
What to do with the upstairs is another issue though.
I'm surprised that Internacionale are still there after opening a St. David's store, maybe they are also waiting for an exit from their lease.
I don't see the issue, a bit of mixed usage is good for these places if you ask me. I've seen other malls have gyms in them, in fact there's one or two here in Dubai with them that also have lots of other non-retail things in them. If it can work for this weird city I'm sure it can work back home.
People sometimes visit one attraction and maybe go to one or two shops at the same visit to that place. People in their lunchtimes sometimes go to gyms, who's to say they won't go to one of the food places afterwards, or go and buy something from Tesco, a card shop, top-up their mobile phones at Orange, go and buy something to wear for the weekend etc.
What are the opening hours at that mall now ? Are they the same as St.David's ? I'm assuming with Tesco and a gym in there it will be later ?
anyone else noticed thatHotel Chocolat has actually opened their store! looked pretty busy tuesday
I'm not very impressed by the new Capitol tescos or the easy gym. The Tescos seems a funny shape, a bit twisted around itself. But the real let down is the easy gym, from the outside at least. So so ugly. Bright orange and labels stuck everywhere. I was worried it would be like that when i first heard easy gym would be doing it. If the colour scheme was tasteful it would be a decent addition have people exercising in the capitol glass brow, feeling healthy and all that, looking over the street. But instead it is a real imposition on the eye. I also dont really understand it as a business decision. I would be put off from using the gym just because of the colour itself. Spending an hour running on the spot can not be made any better by being somewhere that looks horrible.
Have you seen easy rooms in London. if its cheap enouh people will pay!
Primark have put an application in for a new facade on the Queen St elevation of their proposed new store (the old BHS store). Also an application to change the Frederick St elevation.
Well overdue in my opinion. That building really marred the streetscape along that part of Queen St. The plan is for a three storey facade to replace whats there at the moment with a design based on the original 1913 Woolworths building. It's not a mind blowing design and I hope the materials are top notch but it does represent a huge improvement.
Yes, looks like a significant improvement, and "decent" if not outstanding. Primark have done a good job on their two Oxford Street stores which does bode well.
The plans talk about the "new owners".. is this just sloppy language or have Primark actually bought the long leasehold from the St David's Partnership, I wonder? They seem to be the one managing the changes to the unit rather than the Partnership, but I'm not sure if that is typical of retail leases.
The retail space of the store is actually going to be quite a bit larger (by around 26,000 square feet) than the existing BHS store. So its probably now going to be something like 105,000 square feet I reckon, or just over double the size of Primark's existing Cardiff store. If renting, I wonder what the rent is? Still a fair way off some their very largest stores, mind.
On a different note, I had a peruse of the Helical Bar (owners of the old David Morgan estate) accounts yesterday and found some interesting things. Looks like Urban Outfitters is only paying £400,000 a year for their store. You might say "only", but at 22,000 square feet, this represents a steal.
For instance, 11 Queen St, which is currently Laura Ashley, who look to want to exit their store (says "Staff Unaware".. shameful!) is 5800 square feet and on the market for £230,000 and is probably less prime. 115 Queen St up by the Capitol is on at £150,000 for 1,700 square feet of sales space. Former (current?) Starbucks at 18 Queen St is to let at £113,000 for 2,100 square feet of sales. Old Jeff Bains in St Davis is up to 2,400 square feet and is on the market for £175,000.
The old Habitat which totals 29,000 square feet, of which 20,000 square feet is sales is on the market for £575,000 which also seems cheap for the size, although not quite as cheap as Urban Outfitters unit. Interesting brochure for it here:
http://www.shopproperty.co.uk/Pdf/40008183364YKIH.pdf?id=d45195d389fd40ce9e55312dd2dc6c64
Interesting... Is this a mistake or some future expansion plans? Follow this link and scroll to page 3 (The Letting Map)
http://www.shopproperty.co.uk/Pdf/40008183364YKIH.pdf?id=d45195d389fd40ce9e55312dd2dc6c64
It shows that Jack Wills is situated in it's current position on the Hayes and is also in the Rossiters of Bath unit directly behind. Is Rossiters leaving the Royal Arcade and Jack Wills expanding into this unit OR is this simply a mistake on the map?
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