St. Davids Shopping Centre

Summer 2014 St Davids Update!

The Beauty Studio by Superdrug has opened in the old Clintons unit.

A smaller Clintons store has opened in half of the old Mamas and Papas unit.

The other half of the old Mamas and Papas unit is vacant.

There are hoardings surrounding Cadwalders in Lower East Side. Any ideas what is happening here?

LK Bennett have closed and the transformation into Wahaca is in full swing (Hoardings are up!)

Krispy Kreme is currently closed for a refit! The new look store is opening soon.

Holland & Barret have relocated to the unit in between Blue Inc and The Body Shop.

Bijou Brigitte has closed down in the Town Wall Arcade and Other Clothing are opening a Cardiff Flagship in that unit.

Shoe Zone have moved into the ModelZone unit and the old Shoe Zone unit is vacant.

The Lush store on Queen Street is now available to let and Lush are rumoured to be opening a new store in St Davids.

Bon Marche are taking the old Select unit in St Davids 1. (Select have now moved into the Internacionale unit)

St Davids Way is fully let on the Primark side, however it is practically empty on the Costa Coffee side.

Thomas Cook have closed their unit in between BB's and Greggs.

Timberland have shown interest in the vacant unit opposite Superdry. A more prominent unit for their return to the city (providing the rumour has any truth behind it).

Other Clothing are closing their dreadful store in the Upper Grand Arcade thankfully!

The New Look store in the Upper Grand Arcade is apparently having a refit in the coming months.

Can't see DV8 lasting much longer in Cardiff. The store looks hopeless, the clothes are tacky and there are never any customers in the store. Appalling.

Calvin Klein Underwear are closing down this month. Another vacant unit on its way... (They have also closed their Liverpool One store.)

Hollister was closed today due to a Air Conditioning malfunction.

Any news on that Champagne Bar that was meant to open next to Ruby Tuesdays?

TGI Friday's is currently closed for refurbishment.

Miller & Carter are days away from opening their restaurant in the Habitat unit. I noticed that it is called Miller & Carter St. Davids. Anyone know why it has been called St Davids when it isn't a part of the centre?

That is unfortunately all the St Davids news for now. Centre is beginning to look quite bleak with the recent surge of store closures. JW.

I think 4 of the units in St Davids Way have been knocked into one. I peeked in when passing the other day and the space inside is huge. Surely this must have been done in anticipation of a new tenant? Does anyone know the identity of that tenant or can they hazard a guess? If that enlarged unit is occupied it will completely change that part of the centre which is looking a bit down at heel at the moment.

I think 4 of the units in St Davids Way have been knocked into one. I peeked in when passing the other day and the space inside is huge. Surely this must have been done in anticipation of a new tenant?

Thanks for the news Karl! This sounds promising... No idea of the tenant! Can't imagine it being a clothing store down that neck of the woods mind!

Don't get too excited - I heard that it's one of the pound shops, can't remember which one though.

Not very exciting but I suppose it means the units are occupied and it drives footfall.

This is the most recent letting plan that I have at my disposal. It is a bit out of date, however it suggests that Poundworld will be opening in the knocked together unit

Let me know if it will allow you access as I have uploaded it to my Google drive

Link

When you look at that, I've got to admit it doesn't look as terrible as we are making out. Although others could go at some point.

Poundworld is very old St Davids/Queen's Arcade! Wilkinson had plans previously?

The plans make the centre seem pretty decent, but there have been no exciting announcements in an awful long time! What ever happened to Forever 21? Why doesn't the city have an Apparel 21? There are so many companies opening in centres very similar to St.Davids but they are leaving out Cardiff on their expansion programmes.. Not great!

I think another retailer that will be opening in the near future is Jacamo/Simply Be. These are online retailers who have opened up a few stores in the last few years to make the most of "multichannel" opportunities. They sell branded clothing in larger sizes (M to XXXXXL) and so might do well with the porkers and steroid abusers that descend on Cardiff on weekends.

The letting plans look fairly decent. Would be good to get the 2 units upstairs next to John Lewis filled. They always planned that upper level to be a home to women's fashion (linking the Debenhams and John Lewis women's fashion floors). But the one has remained stubbornly empty for 5 years and the other looks like its getting very little interest post Gilly Hicks.

Might Cardiff get a Victoria's Secret? They've opened a few now...

And, regarding our more general failure to get top names... I think it reflects the fact that fashion just isn't as important in Cardiff as it is in other parts of the UK.

I'd love to know how much of what we've got would be here without the student population...