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St. Davids Shopping Centre

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RandomComment

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostMon Sep 12, 2016 10:46 pm

Is this a cloud with a silver lining? If St Davids are willing to turn down retailers with good covenants on the issue of rent, it suggests they are confident of robust demand for the space in the centre. It could be rational if there are potentially other occupier waiting in the wings.

A less rosy story is its more 'defensive'. If they were to grant lower rents to American Eagle to fill a unit they might face downward pressure on rents from other tenants.

Either way it probably suggests they are not in a rush to fill units at any expense. They're going for a strategy of achieving higher rents - which makes it even more likely that the equilibrium of the centre is for a fair bit of space to sit empty at any one time.
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jonnywill25

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostTue Sep 13, 2016 12:46 am

RandomComment wrote:Is this a cloud with a silver lining? If St Davids are willing to turn down retailers with good covenants on the issue of rent, it suggests they are confident of robust demand for the space in the centre. It could be rational if there are potentially other occupier waiting in the wings.

A less rosy story is its more 'defensive'. If they were to grant lower rents to American Eagle to fill a unit they might face downward pressure on rents from other tenants.

Either way it probably suggests they are not in a rush to fill units at any expense. They're going for a strategy of achieving higher rents - which makes it even more likely that the equilibrium of the centre is for a fair bit of space to sit empty at any one time.


Hopefully they won't be in a hurry to let MSU02 to The Range then!! :lol:

I am aware that St. David's marketed UG46/47 to Pull & Bear late last year, however they deemed the unit to be too big for the single fascia (12,253 Sq Ft). Since then, Inditex have opened a dual brand store in the Trafford (Stradivarius & Pull & Bear) totalling 10,000 Sq Ft. This format could certainly work in UG46/47 and I think these brands would be slightly more appealing than American Eagle.
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Ben In London

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostTue Sep 13, 2016 9:25 am

If American Eagle is expanding as aggressively as is expected it will be very strange for them to not be in Cardiff.
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Rhodri

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostTue Sep 13, 2016 10:33 am

I have not heard of this shop but there are options on Queen St & St Mary St. One danger to be avoided is that anything new must be SD based. Mirroring the wider city centre everything just needs to spread out a bit. Cardiff is slowly getting bigger. This should be harnessed.
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jonnywill25

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostTue Sep 13, 2016 11:29 am

Unfortunately they have confirmed that "we no longer have any plans to open a Cardiff store in the near future". Certainly a loss for Cardiff, but fingers crossed the unit will be relet some time soon...
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jonnywill25

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostWed Sep 28, 2016 11:50 pm

St. David’s Shopping Centre

Now Open

- Victoria’s Secret (MSU08) Upper Grand Arcade Retailer

- Keihl’s (KLG06) Hayes Arcade Retailer

- Foot Locker (29/31) Town Wall South Retailer

- Build A Bear (13/15) St. Davids Way Retailer

- Timberland (LG16) Lower Grand Arcade Retailer

Opening Soon

- Thaikhun (UG13/14) Upper Grand Arcade Restauran

- SeaSalt (LG85) The Hayes Retailer

- Sblended (2B) Town Wall North Retailer

- Sunglass Hut (TBC) (TBC) Retailer

- Apricot (35/37) St. Davids Way Retailer

Available Units (TO LET)

St David’s 1

- Former Body Shop (4)
- Former Thomas Cook (3)

- Former Weird Fish (18)
- Former Swarovski (20)
- Former CCFC (11) 978 Sq Ft
- Former Help For Heroes (15) 1,069 Sq Ft
- Former Phones 4 U (19) 1,129 Sq Ft

St David’s 2

- Former Inspired Cookware (LG28/29) 2,518 Sq Ft
- Former Fenchurch (LG35) 3,000 Sq Ft
- Former Tinc (LG38) 714 Sq Ft
- Former Jane Norman (LG32) 2,135 Sq Ft
- Former Clas Ohlson (MSU02) 17,700 Sq Ft

- Former Gilly Hicks (MSU05)
- Former Guess (UG37)
- Former Hush Puppies (UG29) 1,772 Sq Ft
- Former DV8 (UG46/47) 12,253 Sq Ft

St David’s 2 (Never Occupied)

- Upper Eastside (KUG11)
- Upper Grand Arcade (MSU06B)
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Simon_SW17

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostThu Sep 29, 2016 11:52 am

One more unit to fill;

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/jojo-maman-bebe-move-new-11954391

Rent is probably the issue although they say they'd rather be amongst independent retailers in the article.
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RandomComment

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostThu Sep 29, 2016 12:31 pm

I think that move makes sense for them - although they might take a hit in the short run. The current shop looks a little sterile, and its shape and size means there isn't space for families with babies to 'relax', sit down, etc. Not sure there are any units of the right size available in St Davids - and if there are, they'd be more expensive than their current one: Morgan Quarter would be much cheaper per square foot.

I think JJMB first opened in 2010 so I'm not sure this store would be empty for long. Retailers usually take 10 year leases with break clauses at 5 years (so in 2015). I think if you don't exercise this, you recommit for a further 5 (rather than it being a rolling break-clause from then on). So does this mean they've been able to assign their lease, or St Davids has found someone to take a new lease? The other options are that after 2015 St Davids allowed them to go on a rolling lease - but that would be a bad sign about St Davids leasibility - or that JJMB did the old trick of setting up a separate company which they will wind up to get out of lease (but then that should have been reflected in the strength of covenant when they initially signed lease - so again, either St Davids were struggling for tenants, or JJMB would have had to pay a rent premium).
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RandomComment

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostFri Sep 30, 2016 5:06 pm

OK this is a bit geeky, but as part of my job today I was writing about business rates revaluations and their impact across England. Theres a little tool online where you can put in address and it spits out old and new rateable values (and you can estimate the new bills too).

Anyway I looked at this for Cardiff and interesting pattern for St Davids centre:
- Cathedral Walk rateable values down about 40%
- Grand Arcade values down about 20-40%
- The Hayes values go between about - 15% and + 30%
- Hayes Arcade values up about 50%
- Eastside (catering) values up about 70%

So basically it looks like the main internal 'shopping' part has seen falls in rents/values - I think the fact top Zone A rents in Cardiff have fallen is already well known. But the East-West route between the Hayes and the small shops and catering units on it have seen upwards revisions to estimated rents/values. Not sure if this just reflects attractiveness of catering units? And of smaller niche retail units?

The Hayes is a mixed bag with big stores seeing downwards revisions and small ones upward revisions. So again a story of the smaller more specialised stores doing better, therefore pushing up rents/values for such properties?
So basically looks like t
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jonnywill25

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Re: St. Davids Shopping Centre

PostMon Oct 17, 2016 4:32 pm

I no longer work in retail and therefore have been out of the loop recently regarding St. Davids and recent lettings/negotiations. However I recently caught up with a source at the centre who explained to me that the proposal of converting retail units in the Grand Arcade into A3 catering units has ruffled some feathers with a lot of occupiers... Especially around the John Lewis end of the Grand Arcade.

Apparently the likes of Monsoon, Lakeland and JJMB were very unhappy to hear about MSU06B being in negotiations with a catering operator. The retailers want footfall drawing stores to open in these significant units rather than restaurants. This could explain why JJMB jumped ship and this opportunity and are moving to Royal Arcade.

Drapers are also reporting that Jones The Bootmakers are exiting their Cardiff store on Cathedral Walk due to poor trading. Intu/Land Securities have to pull their finger out with this area of the centre rapidly before this entire arcade is completely vacant.
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