Quintain moves ahead with Wembley retail
Published: 03 June, 2010
Quintain is about to begin marketing its 280,000-sq ft Wembley City retail and leisure development beside Wembley stadium, prior to a start on site next year.
The development has been unlocked by the completion of an agreement with Cineworld to lease an 1,800-seat cinema complex that anchors the 280,000-sq ft retail and leisure hub of the Western Core of Wembley City. Marketing for the retail component, including a designer outlet village, will be launched this autumn, paving the way for a start of construction in 2011 and opening in 2013.
And it is now clear that the wider Wembley City regeneration project will include a much larger retailcomponent. In April 2010, following a public inquiry, the Planning Inspectorate endorsed Brent Council's Core Strategy, setting the framework for development in the borough until 2026.
This acknowledges that Wembley will be "the economic engine" for Brent, with the town centre being extended eastwards to facilitate a further 300,000 sq ft of new retail floor space by 2016, in addition to that already granted planning consent. It also acknowledges that there is capacity for a further 1.1 million sq ft of retail floor space by 2026.
The announcements came as Quintain unvesiled a pre-tax loss before tax of £10.1m in the year to 31 March 2010, down from a loss of £129.1m in the previous year. Net asset value per share was broadly unchanged at 120p.
Quintain also announced that leases were agreed on seven of the 13 retail units in its Greenwich Peninsula development, beside the O2 dome, where it is joint developer with Lend Lease. Major brands Costa Coffee and Chiquitos will be among the first to open retail units at Greenwich Peninsula this year.
