CARDIFFWALESMAP

f o r u m

if it's about Cardiff..
Sport, Entertainment, Transportation, Business,
Development Projects, Leisure, Eating, Drinking,
Nightlife, Shopping, Train Spotting! etc..
then we want it here!


City Centre
:: You Tube :: FLICKR :: Cardiff Bay :: CCFC Stadium :: Cardiff Sports Village :: Wales Map :: brought to you by... PR Design and Print

 

 

CardiffWalesMap
Start a New Topic 
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Author
Comment
Re: City Centre Retail

I noticed today that the fair trade shop Shared Earth in the Morgan Arcade has suddenly closed down.

Re: City Centre Retail

Ash
What surprises me with Duke Street is that it hasn't attracted more businesses aimed at tourists. The existing gift shop seems to do very well and it's odd that other businesses haven't tried to cash-in on the Castle's footfall.


The dirty great road in between the shops and the castle doesn't really help with this. Pedestrians are funnelled off to Queen street or down St. Mary St, and without wide pavements, cafes or restaurants on Duke St. visitors will just go off wandering elsewhere.

Mr Appeasement
There's a lovely picture hung on the temporary fencing outside the castle of how it will look once the paving outside the front gate is finished. From the top of High street to the gate itself will be basically a square. On days when Castle street is closed to traffic this will be a wonderful asset to the city, and pretty good on all other days too. I say "a square" because that will be the shape of the paving. I am glad that the rape of this historic structure by the ticket portacabin is at an end, even though it's little bro is there for a few more weeks. I've tried to find this picture online but in vain.


Now if we closed Duke St to the majority of traffic or even all traffic, the Castle Quarter would become a beautiful place. Whilst car is king though, it'll just be pie in the sky.

Re: City Centre Retail

Schoon are having a closing down sale.

An application to turn Jessops in Churchill Way into the Churchill Cocktail Lounge. Bit of an odd one - lets see how the saturation zone policy stands up.

Re: City Centre Retail

As part of a plan to expand to 30 stores in the UK, Crocs, purveyor of plastic shoes worn by fashion criminals is recruiting for a store manager for its new and soon-to-close Cardiff store:

http://www.totaljobs.com/JobSeeking/Store-Manager_job52858188

I'm actually surprised. I thought the fad for crocs was over. Maybe I was wrong. Good to see international brands coming to Cardiff.

Interesting to see Trinity Leeds has attracted a Fossil store. Surprised they haven't turned up in Cardiff yet.

I wish we had some news on the old Habitat building.

Re: City Centre Retail

I noticed Shared Earth had gone as well. Its a shame.. I wanted to buy one of their fair trade re-usable hemp bags for a couple of friends of mine. Interesting caption on the bag: "Use me until my bottom wears out". I guess they only found a small market for such things.

Re: City Centre Retail

RandomComment
.....I guess they only found a small market for such things.


Just a couple of friends of yours.....?

Re: City Centre Retail

Coffee #1 expansion continues - they are looking to move into a unit in the Aspect. I've always though there was an untapped market here with the various offices on Newport Rd and Queen St station round the corner. With Cafe Nero going across the road as well looks like that should satisfy everyone!

Re: City Centre Retail

Looks like Coffee No 1 are taking the unit in the Aspect that was occupied by Zushi. This follows the recent application to open up in Pontcanna.

I think this is a good move for them - there is a lot of human traffic passing between Queen St and the offices in Newport Rd.

Re: City Centre Retail

Cardiff Ian - are you my alter ego? Or am I yours? Whilst writing that post about Coffee No 1 I had a strange feeling of deja vu....

Re: City Centre Retail

Karl
Cardiff Ian - are you my alter ego? Or am I yours? Whilst writing that post about Coffee No 1 I had a strange feeling of deja vu....


Was just glancing through the planning apps as I was bored in work! Incidentally my new geek discovery on the council website is the Roadworks report (I'm sure Karl will find this interesting as well!).

Roadworks

What it does show is that work starts on Admiral HQ on 26th March (as previously mentioned by chief geek Paul).

Re: City Centre Retail

Well cheers Cardiff Ian - "Chief geek Paul".. I feel like I've really made it now!!!

Re: City Centre Retail

Bon Marche have closed down in SD1. Looking a bit bereft in that part of St Davids now.

Re: City Centre Retail

Peacocks have as well (although they are next door to each other aren't they?). Even though I never went shopping in there, the sight of the empty unit (yesterday) packed quite a punch when I remembered that not so long ago this was lauded as the home-grown retail success story.

Re: City Centre Retail

Azendi are closing on the Hayes and Fred Perry are taking its place this year!

Shoon are also closing down on the Hayes so this could be a perfect little space for Ted Baker. Ted Baker would only be interested in a more heritage and traditional site for a store in Cardiff and aren't interested in St Davids so this could be a perfect store location for them, and a great addition to the Hayes!!

Re: City Centre Retail

JW
Azendi are closing on the Hayes and Fred Perry are taking its place this year!

Shoon are also closing down on the Hayes so this could be a perfect little space for Ted Baker. Ted Baker would only be interested in a more heritage and traditional site for a store in Cardiff and aren't interested in St Davids so this could be a perfect store location for them, and a great addition to the Hayes!!


i like this update

Re: City Centre Retail

Karl
Bon Marche have closed down in SD1. Looking a bit bereft in that part of St Davids now.


Not sure if SD will be able to attract new tenants to these units. It would probably help if the rents were less astronomical though.

The unit next to Debenhams has been empty for years and I saw a rent of over £340,000 online. Greed doesn't pay!

Re: City Centre Retail

I think the Peacocks unit was something like £1 million a year.

St David's do find themselves in a difficult position though. The development cost something like £750 million. That means they need to be looking at something like at least £40 million in rent to reach a decent yield. Some of the big anchor units like John Lewis and Debenhams will be paying peanuts. So that means high rents on the mid and small sized units.

I think Peacocks will make a reappearance in the city centre of Cardiff. Not sure what kind of rent cut they would need to go back in St Davids. Might be able to cut a better deal in Queen Street, which was actually a better unit in my view. Being over 3 levels it allowed an easier configuration in to different departments/sections (e.g. mens, childrens, accessories, etc).

Re: City Centre Retail

RandomComment

I wish we had some news on the old Habitat building.


Think grocery! That's all I can say at the moment!

Re: City Centre Retail

A million quid a year for that shitty old unit under the walkway - you can't be serious.
If they were getting a million a year for that then no wonder Peacocks went bust. I need a lie down.

Re: City Centre Retail

I think we may have tread similar ground before but how much crap would Peacocks have had to shift to turn a buck on that rent not to mention utilities, staff costs, rates etc etc? Is it any wonder that retailers are going down like ninepins?

As for the Habitat building are we to assume another Sainsbury's/Tescos/Waitrose?

Re: City Centre Retail

I can't see a supermarket going in there. They don't really do spiral staircases in supermarkets do they?

Re: City Centre Retail

Well a lot of people were hoping Hamleys would move into the Habitat untit, but I think that's wishful thinking right now

Re: City Centre Retail

A Briton
RandomComment

I wish we had some news on the old Habitat building.


Think grocery! That's all I can say at the moment!


Seriously ? That's just depressing, but then I'm sure the owner will just glad of the rental income.

Waitrose haven't long opened on Queen St, Tesco opposite John Lewis..Sainsbury...or do Asda and Morrisons do city centre stores as well.

I feel some tears coming on at the mere thought of it

Re: City Centre Retail

A Briton
RandomComment

I wish we had some news on the old Habitat building.


Think grocery! That's all I can say at the moment!


Fortnum and Mason?

Re: City Centre Retail

Owen
I guess this is the right place to put this.

Gamegroup (Game, Gamestation, Gameplay) apparantly failed to reach an agreement with EA (one of the World's largest game developers and publishers) to sell their titles in their stores in future - including possible "blockbusters"/"bestsellers". Loads of pre-orders have been cancelled causing general inconvenience.

Just wondering if this hints at much deeper problems behind the scenes.


Game Group to file for administration.

Re: City Centre Retail

Kyle
Toast
What's with all the sweet shops popping up. There is one in the Queens arcade, one in St Davids and one on Queen Street. I've just walked past the capitol and there is another Americandy shop going where that cheapo clothes shop was (called looks). They all look incredibly tacky too. Thankfully, I love sweets.


I've noticed that. We've gone from hardly any to a fair few of them. I'm kind of suprised that we've never had them before.


One less of them now - while walking through town last night I noticed the one next to the Carphone Warehouse on Queen Street (possibly called Sugacane?) has closed down and the store is up for sale.

Never mind though because there is still the New York Candy Co. almost directly opposite in the Capitol Centre, and Americandy in Queens Arcade, Wally's in Morgan Arcade, etc....

Re: City Centre Retail

More mixed news for the city centre / Capital Shopping Centre.

On the one hand it would be a disaster if this unit remained empty, a fate the centre can ill afford, whereas it would also be a major downgrade of the centre's aspirations should some of the prime units in the centre be taken over by Tesco.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2012/04/17/saturation-zone-could-stop-supermarket-opening-in-shopping-mall-91466-30773206/

Re: City Centre Retail

I don't like Tesco, and I represent that by rarely choosing to shop there. I don't have a problem with them per se, and they have a right to exist, and I don't think it would particularly show a lack of aspiration.

I abhor the saturation policy though. It's a charter for idiots, and it's a major factor in who I choose to vote for in the forthcoming local elections

Re: City Centre Retail

The cinema and Littlewoods have been closed down for an age and yet they haven't done anything with the units. Effectively they present a blank facade to the millions who pour out of Queen St station per annum. Imagine the footfall if they could have reconfigured to allow people to walk through the centre on their way to Queen St.

Also SD2 has been planned for at least a decade. They must have known the scale of it and could have forseen the impact it would have had. They just weren't nimble enough to react. They could have changed the emphasis to A3 to counteract the retail heart of the city shifting towards the Hayes. But they didn't and the chances of that happening now are minimal with the saturation zone policy.

The biggest unit and the centre's showcase to the public at large has not had a permanent tenant since Zavvi went under some 4-5 years ago. They have got Sports Direct in on what must be a short term rolling lease and they have effectively turned the main entrance into a huge advertisment for a closing down sale. Inexorably the centre gets dragged downmarket and now they have to take Tesco's shilling to get it let. How will tenants such as Fat Face, Jaeger, Phase 8 etc react to that? Do they want to be associated with a centre where an ever decreasing number of units are retail?

I think they are also guilty of hubris. An old client of mine had a shop in the centre. He was squeezed on a rent review and in terms of service charge because he felt they wanted to get independents out and get a high street chain in. He has left and the unit he occupied has been empty for 2 years.

I think at best the management have been complacent with the result that the Capitol appears to be sliding towards bargain basement territory.

Re: City Centre Retail

Karl
They just weren't nimble enough to react.


There was that plan for a tower of flats on the cinema site which hit the floor with the property market, so they had made some plans. They were just useless ones.


Back when they came out I remember some of us on this forum slamming it for the colour scheme and blockyness and all the rest, when the colour scheme of the latest planned tall building was the big thing on this forum, not realising what the economy had in store just around the corner...

Re: City Centre Retail

So does Tesco looking at the virgin megastore unit mean the plans for a gym in the upstairs bit have gone? Or is Tesco just downstairs and the gym plan is still on?

Re: City Centre Retail

^^^^^ this is exactly what I was wondering, and also will tescos have an entrance within the the shopping mall or will it have an entrance fronting onto churchill way/queen street only, in which case tescos wont even provide much needed additional footfall for the centre.

Re: City Centre Retail

I think it was more or less inevitable that the eastern end of Queen Street would become more of a secondary shopping area following the development of SD2 and the pedestrinisation of High Street and Saint Mary Street.

The retail axis has always swung back and forth between St Mary Street, The Hayes and Queen Street. It's no great surprise that it's happening again.

The Capital Centre is a pretty dated development by now. I wouldn't be surprised to see the whole area redevoloped when the economy gets moving again.

Re: City Centre Retail

where in the capital did the cinema and littlewoods use to be? :P

Re: City Centre Retail

Jw
where in the capital did the cinema and littlewoods use to be? :P


Littlewoods Index, similar to Argos, had a basement store with its own external entrance on the corner of Queen Street and Station Terrace.

The "old" Odeon Cinema occupied the corner of the centre between Station Terrace and North Edward Street, with its entrance on Station Terrace opposite the Aspect apartments parking structure. I think it had 5 screens and possibly still intact inside despite been closed for a very long time.

Re: City Centre Retail

Looks like Evans Cycles will be opening in the old Hypervalue unit under the MSCP on Dumfries Place. Good news for us cyclists. Since Halfords on the Hayes and Chris Harris Cycles on Bridge St went when SD2 was developed there have been no proper bike shops in the city centre.

Re: City Centre Retail

Wheyhey! Them brakes on my bike sure need changing.

Re: City Centre Retail

Is a big unit.

There's a cycling place in Howells.

Re: City Centre Retail

This is extremely good news considering how long this unit has been vacant for, who the previous tenants were, and given the relatively high profile (or at least when it's derelict) of the unit. There are quite a few new openings down this end of queen st now (yes I refuse to give up on this end of queen st despite its troubled past few years), what with cafe nero, the gym and tescto in the capitol shopping centre and evans cycles.

Re: City Centre Retail

Plus Coffee No 1 due to open in the Aspect.

Re: City Centre Retail

I haven't been this excited in a while! Could we see armani exchange popping up in the city soon? I came across this job advertisement for a Cardiff Store Manager...

http://jobs.trovit.co.uk/index.php/cod.frame/url.http%253A%252F%252Fwww.retailcareers.co.uk%252Fjob%252Fstore-manager-942390962%253Fsrc%253Dsearch/id_ad.1kS1ca1K1lU1O/type./what.new%20stores%20cardiff%20manager/pos.1/org.1/pop.1/publisher_id./referer_id.1/t.1

Looks like A/X will be joining the cardiff retail scene this Summer, but where will the store be???

Re: City Centre Retail

Student Cardiff
More mixed news for the city centre / Capital Shopping Centre.

On the one hand it would be a disaster if this unit remained empty, a fate the centre can ill afford, whereas it would also be a major downgrade of the centre's aspirations should some of the prime units in the centre be taken over by Tesco.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2012/04/17/saturation-zone-could-stop-supermarket-opening-in-shopping-mall-91466-30773206/


New Tesco store in Capitol Shopping Centre granted Alcohol Licence by Cardiff Council this morning

Re: City Centre Retail

please please please let this be true. i've been in mourning since aquascutum went into administration

Re: City Centre Retail

Jantra, I was in a state of shock on hearing about Aquascutum... Who knows whats around the corner! Anyways A/X too look forward too... I Didn't expect Amarni to enter the city, I must be honest! Happy Days Though!

Re: City Centre Retail

Quite a bit of good news in this week's planning applications;
Coffee no1 being confirmed for the old sushi unit at aspect,
Evans cycles confirmed for underneath dumfries place car park,
Crocs opening in SD 2, although not sure which unit,
Creperie to open in on of the (i suppose vacant units) in high street arcade.

There does seem to be quite a lot of momentum recently, granted that it is mainly to fill units that have been vacated by failed businesses as opposed to previously unlet units, It would be nice to see this momentum continuing!

Re: City Centre Retail

I think Crocs are going in the unit between Kamigata and Sole Trader ie. the Tredegar St end of SD2. Also Boots are taking the unit opposite.

On the downside Rebel and Front Up both appear to have shut in SD2.

Re: City Centre Retail

I think that out of all the stores, these were the most likely to go, they were only short term to begin with!

Although it is never good to see empty units, neither of these stores was exactly an asset to the shopping centre, and with more life down the tredegar st end of the centre one can only hope that this entices more retailers to this end of the mall!

Re: City Centre Retail

Well, I Didn't expect to see an Amarni brand in Cardiff! & I am actually glad those two stores have closed. They weren't exactly asses to the centre! More space for bigger and better retailers in my eyes.

Re: City Centre Retail

I've just been into Barkers coffee shop in Castle Arcade for the umpteenth time only to discover that it has been expanded AGAIN. This is now the third expansion since it opened about two years ago. This place really is a prize asset in Cardiff city centre.

The quality of the interior decor is (IMO) a cut above any other coffee place in Cardiff - and the coffee is actually good (unlike many places).

Apparently the clothes shop has been losing (more?) money since SD2 opened, hence the gradual conversion from the rag trade. The remaining retail element of the store now represents approx 30% of the total floor space.

Re: City Centre Retail

Thanks for the tip-off Wizard - I will try it next time I'm in town. I'm a Coffee #1 regular but somewhere else to occasionally visit would be good!

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
CARDIFFWALESMAP - FORUM