Shopping centre development in the UK has slowed to a crawl with the total 2012 pipeline forecast to be just 31,500 m2, the lowest annual figure since the early 1960s, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Shopping centre development in the UK has slowed to a crawl with the total 2012 pipeline forecast to be just 31,500 m2, the lowest annual figure since the early 1960s, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Only one new scheme, the Swan Shopping Centre in Yardley (15,600 m2), which opened in February 2012, is included in this year's pipeline. Nine extensions, including the MetrOasis food court at the MetroCentre in Gateshead, make up the remainder.
The amount of new shopping centre space added to the market last year was up 14% on 2010, with provision increasing by 276,000 m2. However, this figure is massively skewed by Westfield Stratford City which increased total space in the capital by 10%. At 176,500 m2, the scheme is now the largest in London and the second-largest in the country, after the MetroCentre in Gateshead.
Only two other new shopping centres opened in 2011: The Parkway in Newbury (27,400 m2) and Trinity Walk in Wakefield (46,500 m2). This is in sharp contrast to previous years: between 2001 and 2010, an average of nine new shopping centres were completed annually.
Around 170,000 m2 of new space is in the pipeline for 2013, including Trinity Leeds (75,900 m2), New Square in West Bromwich (43,900 m2), and the Whiteley Shopping Centre (27,900 m2) on the site of the former Whiteley Village factory outlet centre in Fareham.
