Union Square in Aberdeen
Hammerson's Union Square is set to transform Aberdeen's retail offer
Published: 27 August, 2009
Union Square, Hammerson’s 700,000-sq ft retail-led regeneration scheme in Aberdeen city centre, will open to the public on 29 October 2009 and it is already more than 50 per cent let.
The centre is unusual in its configuration: it combines a conventional covered mall linked to a premium retail park and it will be the first combined retail offer of this kind in Scotland. The new centre is also linked by a glazed atrium to Aberdeen’s transport hub, including the train and bus stations which are used by over 2.5 million passengers a year.
Marks & Spencer will anchor the scheme from the retail park, and the 52,000-sq ft
unit will be the department store’s second central location in Aberdeen. The new Union Square store will be the retailer’s main food offer for the city and will also carry its homeware range.
Alongside Marks & Spencer other brands already committed to the retail park element include Next, Clarks, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Warehouse, Miss Selfridge and Burton. And in the latest lettings Instyle Furniture has taken 27,265 sq ft, Mamas & Papas 6,956 sq ft and
JD Sports 7,700 sq ft.
As the scheme nears completion, the letting campaign is shifting. “We’re substantially there in terms of the retail park element, and now the letting focus is moving more towards the smaller fashion units,” explains Hammerson’s director of leasing Sheila King.
The latest lettings in the main mall include Danish retailer Bestseller which will open an 8,238-sq ft multifascia store trading under the Jack & Jones and Vero Moda brands. Strengthening the youth fashion line up, Cult has also taken an 8,500-sq ft store. And Apple’s new 7,038-sq ft store will be just its second in Scotland.
“Everything in Aberdeen is 20 years old or more,” says King. “So this is an opportunity to provide retailers with the kind of space they need.”
She explains: “Aberdeen’s never had anywhere for the mid market/aspirational brands like Karen Millen, so we’ve taken our time: we wanted to get the right covenants in. That’s especially important in a scheme that doesn’t have a department store.”
King explains that the two elements of the scheme have been leased separately, with overall rents applied on the retail park and zoning on the in-line units on the mall. But in the end, she says there’s little to tell between rental levels in the two elements.
The third strand to Union Square is its leisure element: the recently signed Japanese restaurant Yo! Sushi joins other restaurant brands including Ask, Nandos, Chiquito and Frankie & Benny’s in a cluster around the Cineworld ten-screen multiplex. And unusually the scheme features a Jurys Inn hotel, accessed directly off the mall so guests arriving by train will pass through the mall to reach their hotel.
“Hotels are a big issue in Aberdeen, especially at a time when oil exploration’s on the increase again,” explains King. And the oil industry is undoubtedly one of the factors that made Aberdeen an attractive investment proposition for Hammerson, because the
city is less dependent on the national economic cycle.
Other key factors for King are Aberdeen’s remoteness, which means very little of its retail spend leaks elsewhere, and the fact that Aberdeen has two universities, giving it a young and fashion-conscious catchment.
“Aberdeen has a high spending catchment, and there are a number of retailers who don’t currently have brand presence in the city. Union Square offers well proportioned retail space in the centre of Aberdeen and retailers clearly recognise that this is an excellent opportunity,”
she concludes.
