Peel Land & Property’s retail park secures new signings from Arcadia and Nandos.
The Peel Centre Straiton, or Straiton Retail Park to locals, will become home to a new 10,000 sq.ft “Outfit” multi-retailer store, after owner, Arcadia, signed a ten year lease. The deal means shoppers will be able to purchase brands like Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins and Burtons without having to travel outwith Midlothian. Work is due to commence shortly in the unit on the top tier of the park, as the store prepares to open this Summer. Staff are currently being hired for the opening, said to be June 2015 in the job description, though Peel say a late Summer or early Autumn opening is more likely.
As we’ve previously reported, Nando’s has signed a 15 year lease to open a 3,600 sq.ft restaurant neighbouring Frankie and Benny’s. They were slated to open late last year, however they now aim to start construction in Autumn this year, to open by Christmas.
Last year, the retail park opened a large 17,000 sq.ft “gateway unit”, which has since become Sofaworks’ best performing store in their portfolio. The design of the new unit will be echoed in the new Nando’s restaurant, along with the design of the forthcoming department store.
Kevin Keigher, Asset & Development Manager from the Peel Group commented:
The continued investment in Straiton Retail Park has enabled us to deliver three exceptional additions to the already strong tenant mix. We will continue to improve and invest in Straiton in order to meet customer demand as we reposition the scheme as a modern shopping park. Each of these retailers plays a key part in the ongoing strategy for Straiton, encompassing all elements of the retail mix, particularly fashion, together with food & drink, household goods, and leisure offerings.
Peel are keen to exploit the desire for high street fashion retailers. To fulfil this, they opened Next’s largest store in Edinburgh along with a new 40,000 sq.ft Matalan concept store. The addition of “Outfit” further cements their aim but ambitious plans to construct a “fashion terrace” on land opposite Homebase may have been abandoned, at least for the time being. The park’s owner says that the “terrace”, which was due to start construction alongside the Nando’s unit, “[is] not programmed in and not currently being actively marketed”.
Alongside the new restaurant unit will be the continued renovation of the upper tier of units. Works to modernise the facades of the parade commenced several years ago, and are largely complete, however the Homebase unit still has its original tower and profiled metal cladding. It is expected that the retailer will move into a larger consented, independent unit by ASDA, allowing Peel to undertake the renovations later this year.
The park’s owner still holds planning permission to create a three storey, 95,000 sq.ft department store on land to the west of the lower retail tier. This development would also give a further 400 car parking spaces. However, the construction of this will not commence in 2015. Peel did tease that “leisure offerings” are now being considered, saying “leisure forms a key part of the overall masterplan for Straiton”, perhaps hinting at plans for a much muted cinema.
Work is currently ongoing to add a second mezzanine floor to Pets at Home, who will add a Veterinary Practice to the store by the Summer.
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