Looking to the future
Published: 25 August, 2011
Having celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, Cheltenham town centre’s 180,000-sq ft Regent Arcade is looking to the future. And a major redevelopment is on the cards.
A joint venture between Canada Life and NFU Mutual, before Canada Life took over as the sole landlord in 2005, Regent Arcade opened on the site of the former Plough Hotel in 1985. The centre is a key part of the community, linking two parts of the town – Regent Street with its aspirational brands like Reiss and Jack Wills and the High Street with its mid-tier retailers. Its positioning within the community is reflected in its many services, from the commissioning and repair of jewellery, to Chinese and alternative medicine, an opticians and Cheltenham Festivals ticket office which sells 180,000 tickets each year to Cheltenham’s literary and music events. There is also an arts and craft gallery set up by local artists.
Anchored by Bhs, which is currently undergoing a £2.7m renovation, TK Maxx and Mothercare, the 60-unit centre has recently undergone a major refurbishment.
“It was ahead of its time when it first opened with marble columns and walkways but it was in need of improvement,” says centre manager, John Forward.
Work started in 2007 and included the installation of new flooring, lighting, lifts, seating, signage and wayfinding, extra escalators, two disabled toilets with a separate baby changing unit, a CCTV system upgrade, better fire protection and a triple-glazed roof.
“The old roofing was made of a brown poly-carbonate and the walls were mushroom coloured,” explains Forward. “Now there’s much more natural light and the new flooring has made the malls look wider.”
The refurbishment was seen as a good opportunity to put in sustainable materials and equipment, raising the centre’s green credentials on top of existing recycling procedures.
Water is now harvested from the roof and used to flush the customer toilets, flexible lighting is expected to save electricity by 10 per cent and the escalators slow almost to a stop when not in use.
Smoke vents in the roof open automatically when the centre reaches 22 degrees, allowing fresh air in for a more balanced, comfortable temperature.
For managing agents DTZ, and joint letting agents Cushman & Wakefield and KBW, the refurbishment has opened the doors for a leasing drive. Of nine void units, there is currently interest in two. For Forward and his team and DTZ, flexibility on lease lengths and unit sizes is key.
Schuh opened in October 2010 in a shop converted from two 1,000-sq ft units previously let to Warehouse and Principles - something that could be replicated if the right retailer came along.
And last year, an internal bridge linking the centre with House of Fraser was converted into a licensed cafe complete with sofa seating, an open kitchen where customers can watch the chef at work and a coffee bean station where people can pick and bag their own.
Retailer liaison is another focus.
“Listening is one of the most important things we do,” says Richard Ralph, senior surveyor at DTZ. “Most of the problems facing today’s tenants aren’t new ones – we’ve seen it all before over the years and can usually offer constructive and helpful advice. We do our best to assist – if additional storage space is needed on a short-term basis for example, or we can provide in-mall poster sites free of charge for marketing purposes.”
According to ex-retailer Forward (he spent 40 years at Debenhams), his philosophy is to encourage store managers to come to him with problems or ideas instead of waiting for the quarterly tenant meetings.
“If you think of a can do/can’t do attitude as black and white, we like to work in the grey area,” he explains. “We like to compromise and resolve issues so that all parties get something out of it. That way it’s a win win situation.”
Looking to the future, a redevelopment of the centre’s main entrance is due to start in September and will involve the creation of two 20,000-sq ft fashion stores, made in part from three units claimed from the high street.
“One of the issues in Cheltenham is that there isn’t a lot of large retail space available, and that’s what the retailers are looking for,” says Forward. “We may eventually redevelop the secondary entrance but that’s just an idea for now.”
Forward is keen to assure readers that Regent Arcade’s famous ‘wishing fish’ clock – which was installed at the time of opening in 1985 and which moves, plays music and ejects bubbles every half an hour - would be left untouched.
“We could do anything in the centre but if we got rid of the clock there’d be an outcry,” he said.
