Pitt Stop
Published: 01 May, 2007
Despite being sited close to Birmingham city centre and the enormously successful Bullring, The Fort shopping park continues to pull in the crowds.
Built on the original test track for Dunlop Tyres and opened in 1997, the Birmingham shopping park was in a great position just off the M6 and attracted people predominantly from the Birmingham area. But the opening of the Bullring in autumn 2003 meant The Fort had to refocus its catchment and pull in shoppers from other areas.
"When I came to the scheme there wasn't anything in Birmingham city centre, but now of course there's the Bullring," explains centre manager Nicholas Pitt, who says that now only get a small proportion of shoppers from the Birmingham area visiting The Fort.
However, with 36 predominantly fashion-based retailers, including Marks & Spencer, Desire by Debenhams, Bhs, Next, River Island, JJB Sports and Boots, people now come from as far as Solihull and Dudley. The number of car visits has increased by 2 per cent from last year and was up 2 per cent the previous year, while during Christmas week 2006, 80,000 cars parked at the scheme, which meant a huge turnover for the 2,000 parking spaces.
"Touchwood customers are coming up from Solihull and shoppers are even coming from Merry Hill way," says Pitt. "We were feeding off the centre of Birmingham at one point but that's now gone. We've increased our own offer with M&S and Debenhams and they're quite a draw with the local area."
Pitt explains The Fort did extensive radio and press advertising, as well as some television advertising on Central TV, in the three weeks leading up to the opening of the Bullring and the six months after, to attract shoppers.
"We're not competing with the Bullring, but we are spreading our catchment out to people that are less likely to travel into Birmingham," Pitt adds.
Currently, dwelltime stands at an average of 1 hour 15 minutes, but Pitt hopes a new food court, which is currently in for planning permission, will help increase that.
The old food court, which was taken over by M&S, didn't work very well for the scheme, explains Pitt. "They were clearly low to medium offers that weren't the sort of thing that promoted the rest of the scheme."
The new food court, which will be built on vacant land adjacent to WH Smith, will include three A3 units, and it is hoped it will be complete by early next year. "At the moment we're not a destination shopping place, but more in and out," Pitt says. "We want people to come here and say 'I want to spend a couple of hours here and enjoy the experience'."
Other plans in the pipeline include a storage facility at the back of the scheme, which will provide 20 units for tenants to store stock.
"Storage space is at a premium here," explains Pitt. "The new facility will be built in time for Christmas."
Owners of the scheme Henderson, Insight Investment and Wolverhampton Council have also bought a strip of land behind the park, which they plan to develop. "At the moment it's waste ground," says Pitt. "We want to put something interesting there. I want a go-kart track on there but I don't think that will work. When I said it to the Trust, they just laughed."
However, other ideas include a large drive-thru car wash facility, a Subway, or a public service building such as a dentist, a vet or a library. "A car showroom would also fit in quite well as there are already some showrooms there," Pitt adds.
Pitt is also very environmentally-aware and is keen to do as much as possible in the arena of sustainability. He has a number of ideas that he says he refuses to go into but says they already do quite a lot. All bulbs on site have been changed to energy-efficient bulbs; they currently recycle cardboard, paper and printer cartridges, and this has gone up by 4 per cent over the last year; they have changed their lighting systems, which now work on a phase system to reduce output; and they work closely with local schools, sending pupils on eco weekends to learn about sustainability.
Last year the shopping park hosted a free drive-in movie, showing Pixar's Cars two weeks before it was released in the cinema. The event was held over two nights, with 499 cars per night. All proceeds from the event, which amounted to £6,000, went towards sending a school on an eco weekend. Pitt wants to do a similar event this year.
"We are constantly looking at new ways of being sustainable," says Pitt. "I want to do so much more. I know there is so much more we can do."
----
=== vital statistics ===
the fort
Owners: Henderson, Insight Investment, Wolverhampton County Council
Managing agent: DTZ
Project manager: GVA Grimley
Letting agents: DTZ and Savills
GLA: 280,000 sq ft
Number of tenants: 36
Security: Mitie
Cleaning: Amega Contract Cleaners
Parking spaces: 2,000 free
Dwelltime: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Catchment: 20 minute drivetime along the M42 and A52 corridor towards Leicester
