Kickstart for Staines

Refurbishment works at the Elmsleigh Centre have helped put Staines on the retail map

Published: 22 June, 2006

Page 14

When you think of Staines, Middlesex, it is not likely that a superb line-up of retailers over two successful shopping schemes, and an award-winning pedestrianised high street will naturally spring to mind.

More likely an image of Ali G in a yellow tracksuit and sunglasses hanging around in a grafitti-infested park with a gang of youths will be conjured up, and if not, then Heathrow will probably be your main term of reference, because the UK's largest airport is only up the road. However, take a look at this town and there is a lot to be gained from making a visit.

The whole town centre has undergone a revamp over recent years. In 2000 the development of the Two Rivers shopping park provided a host of big box units to retailers such as Boots while also providing eateries, a gym and a cinema complex. This lead was followed in 2002 with the pedestrianisation of the high street, which now plays host to a regular traditional market, as well as occasional specialist ones. But the latest improvement to Staines is the major refurbishment of the Elmsleigh Centre, which has been the town's main retail destination since 1980.

Owners of the scheme Clerical Medical and asset management company Munroe K took the decision to refurbish the centre when all their 25-year occupational leases were up for renewal in 2005. At the same time they took a new 250-year lease from Spelthorne Borough Council, which has a freehold interest in the centre.

Munroe K director Roger Fulford says: "Clerical appointed Munroe K in 2003 as management and we talked to the retailers about whether they wanted to renew their leases; they said they wouldn't while the centre was looking so dated."

Before Phase One of the refurbishment took place last year, the centre was set back from the pavement and passers-by could easily have walked past the entrance without noticing it. Meanwhile inside the ceilings were very low and there was not much daylight in the malls - basically it was a typical 1970s shopping centre.

"It was a dark and fairly dismal shopping centre," says Fulford, who says the refurbishment also provided an opportunity to replace the existing air conditioning and smoke ventilation systems, which were both coming to the end of their lives, so that the centre is now naturally ventilated.

The refurbishment is being completed in three separate phases. Phase One, which cost £10m, was completed in October 2004 and over the course of 52 weeks saw all the malls given a new lease of life with a glass roof across a large part of the centre, providing the malls with a lot of natural daylight, while the new glazed entrance is now a focal point for shoppers in the town centre.

"As a result of the refurbishment most of the leases renewed," says Fulford. "There are a couple of exceptions such as Dixons which was closing stores anyway where there was an opportunity to do so." The centre also managed to remain open throughout the whole phase of refurbishment, with a temporary scaffold roof used to keep the rain out while the roofing works were being carried out.

Centre manager Peter Miles says: "The public reaction to Phase One was absolutely wonderful. The daylight was the biggest benefit."

Footfall has also increased as a result of completion of the works. "It wasn't a stupendous increase," says Miles, "but as we were in a difficult financial climate the 10 to 12 per cent increase was considered good at the time. The centre's marketing has been geared to targeting our catchment areas."

Fripp Sandeman, which carries out retail research for shopping centres across the country, carried out research on the centre's catchment area before and after the refurbishment to find out how the refurbishment and marketing around the works had increased penetration. The first research showed the centre had one of the lowest penetrations into its primary catchment area that the company had ever come across. Fulford says: "Our job was to win them back and stop them from going to Kingston."

Comparing both sets of research the proportion of A/B shoppers in the catchment rose from 19 per cent above the GB average to 33 per cent above after the completion of Phase One. Penetration into the shopping catchment was 27 per cent in 2003, rising to 31 per cent in 2005, but Fulford believes more work still needs to be done.

The resident catchment population in 2003 stood at 552,000, and it now stands at 570,000, which is a 3 per cent increase. Meanwhile, the shopping population - the number of shoppers regularly visiting the centre - rose from 147,000 in 2003 to 178,000 in 2005, which was a 21 per cent increase. As a percentage this meant the number of shoppers as a proportion of the number of people in the catchment rose from 27 per cent in 2003 to 31 per cent in 2005.

John Fell of Fripp Sandeman says: "That is a great increase in a small space of time. These are quite good penetration rates because when we look at the primary catchment the penetration went from 90 to 92 per cent, the secondary segment went from 41 to 44 per cent while the tertiary segment went from 7 to 8 per cent. So the areas to work on are mainly secondary, plus tertiary, but the catchment is good for a town of this size."

Meanwhile the centre is not too worried about the development of The Heart in Walton-on-Thames, which falls into its catchment area.

Fell says: "The Heart is quite a small centre and it's good for Walton compared to what they had before, but when you look at the depth of line-up in Staines compared to Walton, people that live in Walton may shop more frequently there but I don't see it as a major issue. Also, when you look at the catchment area for Staines, Walton is tertiary anyway so if there was an impact it would only be very small."

Phase Two, which is costing an additional £10m, is currently underway at the centre - having started on 9 January 2006. A quarter of the scheme comes under Phase Two, which involves the redevelopment of an area known as the Forum, which was originally intended to be a food court. Instead, a number of smaller tenants filled the area, which is now to become the new Bhs store, set to open this autumn. The anchor tenant will be moving from a 68,000 sq ft store (of which it only ever used 40,000 sq ft) to a new store with a footprint of 46,500 sq ft in order to free up the redundant space, which will be used to create new large units, including two units of 3,000 sq ft, a large store of 20,000 sq ft and another of 3,300 sq ft, while a new upstairs mall cafe will be created that will be accessible from the ground floor via newly-built escalators. New Look, which would move from its smaller existing store, as well as H&M and Primark, are looking at moving into the newly-created space. In addition, the space freed up by Bhs will enable stores such as Superdrug to increase the depth of their units.

"We are attracting more retailers than before, which was the whole point really," says Fulford. And Miles adds: "When we finished the first phase of the refurbishment quite a lot of retailers reported an increase in trading above their normal expectations.

"More retailers are looking at Staines with a new light. Retailers have moved into Staines in the last three years who probably wouldn't have considered it five or six years ago. The offer has improved so much.

"Although we are in difficult trading times nationally, quite a lot of our retailers are saying they're doing better here than their counterparts in towns of a similar size."

Phase Three, which is due to start in the summer of 2007, will see the bus station redeveloped to create additional retail space in the centre. Fulford says Clerical is currently working with the council, the landowner, on this. He explains: "The bus station is an important anchor, delivering a substantial number of people each day but it's oversized by about 50 per cent so we realised we could develop about 50,000 sq ft of retail space and build a new modern bus station where the public would be protected from the weather."

The space created will allow the centre to build two units of around 20,000 sq ft each. Phase Three will also see a new entrance created into the centre from the bus station, similar to the one off the high street, while there are also plans to create either 70 residential flats or 40-50,000 sq ft of offices within the scheme. The final phase is expected to be complete by autumn 2008.

As a result of the refurbishment, the Elmsleigh Centre has eight retail units available to let, by way of new 15-year FRI leases. Discussions are already underway with a number of potential tenants, some of which are hoping to relocate from the smaller units they are currently housed in within the centre. River Island is in discussions to take a larger store and Blue Inc is considering taking River Island's current unit. Three parties have also bid to take the new mall cafe, but the centre is unable to reveal who will be taking that space just yet.

Other retailers that have joined the scheme as a result of the work include New Look, Orange, Early Learning Centre, Fragrance Shop, Tchibo, Vision Express, Card Factory and Monsoon/Accessorize. Various other tenants have relocated to larger units in the scheme and carried out shopfits.

In addition, zone A rents have gone up from £108 psf to £122 psf.