UK sees record level new shopping centre space

New shopping centres equivalent in size to more than six Bluewater super malls will have opened in the UK by the end of 2008, Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) has said in its latest UK Shopping Centre Development report.

The annual figure of 945,000 m2, according to real estate adviser, is the highest since its records began in 1965 with the opening of the country's first shopping centre in Elephant & Castle, London. Bluewater in Kent has a sales floor area of 154,000 m².

The total figure for 2008 includes 560,000 m² of new space and 385,000 m² in the form of extensions and redevelopment. Westfield London and Liverpool One are the two largest shopping centres to have opened in 2008 at 150,000 m² and 151,431 m² respectively.

Both are now among the five largest shopping centres in the UK but are dwarfed by the MetroCentre in Gateshead which, at 190,447 m2, is the country's largest. Earlier this year major schemes also opened in Bristol with the 93,000 m² Cabot Circus, and in Leicester with the 62,000 m² Highcross scheme.

There is currently 1.2 million m² of new shopping space either under construction and due to open within the next 18 months or which has opened since July. The last shopping centre opening peaks were in the late 1980s/early 1990s and in the mid-1970s.

The difference this time, however, is that the majority of schemes are in-town regeneration schemes rather than out-of-town schemes in the mould of Bluewater, Kent which was the last such major scheme of its type in the UK. Liverpool One, for example, is an open streetscape scheme integrated into the historic city centre which represents over £900 mln of largely private investment into the region.