St. Davids Shopping Centre

Perhaps the Thai restaurant chain is this outfit -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... nsion.html

Basuab Eathai are London based but the article says are looking at expanding to three other cities including Leeds. Could Cardiff be one of the others? Recent reports suggest that chain restaurants are queuing up to open here....

Good to see MSU06 finally being let after being empty since the extended centre opened, also interesting to see restaurant units opening up in the main centre. This is the big growth area in retail now with 80 operators queueing up to come to Cardiff according to E J Hales.

Will also be good to see the old DV8 unit let, the upstairs is filling up nicely now.

Now to fill Clas Ohlson...

Clas Ohlson will be a difficult one I fear - its a fairly narrow unit at the front, and very deep. I imagine it'd have made a good Wilko actually, but thats now on Queen Street. But apart from that, who else?

Interesting how many restaurant operators want to open up! Good to see the unit next to JL finally find a tenant. If its a popular operator it might actually entice people down to that end of the upper floor, which can sometimes feel a bit dead.

Also managed to find out that Victoria Secret St. David's will be 10,500 square foot (estimate) making it one of their smaller stores in the UK portfolio but atleast it has the scope for expansion...

Any idea what footwear operator could be opening in the old Blue Unc unit? This one is interesting me...

In comparison to other UK shopping centres we don't have the following footwear retailers:

- Adidas
- Aldo
- Russell & Bromley
- Timberland

Additionally, I wouldn't be surprised if Foot Locker or Office relocated from Queen Street into St. David's. Any other suggestions?

Clas Ohlson is a very difficult one. It's a good space for a Tesco Metro, but with Tesco Express just around the corner it's unlikely.

Now that Sainsburys have taken over Argos, there is talk of them closing many standalone Argos stores and having a "store within a store" format... maybe the unit could be split between them?

I just hope we don't end up with B&M or Home Bargains... Having said that, we don't have a Poundstretcher in town anymore do we...

I think we can rule out any supermarkets, their profit margins wouldn't stretch to St. David's rents.

Similarly with any stores with Pound or 99p in their names.

I'm struggling to think of a big retailer who'd take it.

I think we can rule out any supermarkets, their profit margins wouldn't stretch to St. David's rents.

Similarly with any stores with Pound or 99p in their names.

I'm struggling to think of a big retailer who'd take it.

This units a bit too big but I wonder if W.H Smith might be looking at moving from Queen Street.The centre of gravity has shifted away from their current location.

Harvey Nichols Beauty Bazaar were looking at Cardiff a couple of years back, there's one open in Liverpool One. That would be a good fit for a large unit. Not sure if Cardiff would be the right demographic though.

I'm currently working in Oxford, and having a look at their upcoming tenant list for the Westgate Centre development, there's nothing there that would fit a very large unit either.

http://www.shopping-centre.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/8988/Half_way_for_Westgate.html

I think we can rule out any supermarkets, their profit margins wouldn't stretch to St. David's rents

Even as a combined Sainsburys/Argos as I suggested?

I'm not in the know about Sainsbury's and Argos' plans but I don't think the sort of rents charged by St. David's would be a realistic option. Argos has small margins as well, they'll be paying a lot less at Queen's Arcade than they would in the Grand Arcade.