Want to attract retailers to your mixed-use project? You need to know how they think. Find out here …
Fashions and food tastes change with the seasons; regeneration projects can take decades to happen. Retailers want the prime location for maximum sales; regeneration is all about bringing together the right mix of uses to generate broader economic and social well-being. For all these reasons, the relationship between the fast-moving retail sector and regeneration can be slightly uneasy.
The days are long gone when retail was injected into the town centre by developing a standalone monolithic mall and paying a big-name anchor tenant to bring in other stores and the shoppers. Now relatively few malls are being developed and retail is being reintegrated into the urban fabric with new high streets, complete with shopping parades topped with apartments. This complex mix demands a greater understanding between public sector regeneration players and retailers.
David Burns, director of the northern strategic business unit at construction and management consultancy Currie and Brown, gives some insight into the workings of the retail mind:
Different regeneration projects will get a different reception from retailers
Burns adds: "You can say, this is where you want the centre, and locate the public buildings there to try to create the market, but it is still a leap of faith for a retailer.
But as large-scale regeneration projects are often led by significant quantities of residential, they create a market and so can be attractive to retailers."
Don't think that your retail problems are solved if a big-name retailer signs up to take space in your scheme early on
Stay in touch with the market and think about how to make your retail environment better than the one next door
The retailer wants it now
Retailers want to open their store first
Shopping for more information
At the start of the year, the British Council for Shopping Centres commissioned its most extensive research project: an 18-month independent examination of retail property trends. The programme, called The Future of Retail Property, aims to give retailers, developers, investors and public policy-makers a road map of trends for the next decade. It covers every aspect of retail development, from location and planning to tenant
mix and leasing.
The programme is broken down into eight projects and the results of the individual projects will be published over the next 18 months. The first findings on the future of online retailing will be published in June and a full report of the conclusions of all eight research projects will be published next year.
The projects and their researchers are:
- Online retailing
Cushman & Wakefield is looking at the impact of web retailing on the retail property sector - In town or out of town
Michael Bach, former principal planner at the ODPM, and geographic information consultant Geofutures are looking at how planning policy could change over the next decade - Future modes of transport
Planning consultant DHC is looking at future trends and costs of travel - Changing demographics and consumer patterns
Retail analyst Verdict and the University of Surrey are looking at demographics, consumer behaviour and future spending patterns. The University of Surrey will be concentrating on the grey consumer - Retail business models
The Oxford Institute of Retail Management is investigating how retail businesses and store formats will change - The future of brands
Ralph Ardill, founder and chief executive of The Brand Experience Consultancy, is looking at the impact of brands on retailing, and the potential for retail centres to become brands in their own right - What type of future shopping places
Architect BDP is looking at the trends in architecture, urban design, ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø Regulations and construction that will determine the form of retail places.
For more information about the research, see
Source
RegenerateLive
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