Sunderland has come through the economic challenges of recent years with hopes intact for a series of major regeneration schemes. Three North East property specialists take a look at its potential.
THOUGH clearly without a city centre the scale of Newcastle, Sunderland, the largest city in the region, nevertheless features a very successful shopping development and one of the region’s largest leisure developments at its heart.
The Bridges is the prime, 515,100sq ft, shopping destination for Sunderland. With over 100 shops and several places to eat, the centre is anchored by Debenhams, H&M, TK Maxx, Next and a proposed new Primark due to open in spring 2013.
It attracts over 21.5 million customer visits a year and benefits from an excellent public transport network including 940 parking spaces attached to the centre.
This is a significant achievement when Sunderland City Council points out that only 16.6% of the district’s employment is located in the city centre compared with 33% in Newcastle, which means less spending power on the doorstep.
Within a short walking distance is the Sunniside Leisure development, a major multiplex, casino and leisure scheme that was purchased a little over a year ago by Columbus UK Real Estate Fund LP, advised by Columbus Capital Management.
Here a new Pan-Asian buffet restaurant has just opened in the prime corner site facing High Street West.
The letting for Columbus Capital, advised by BNP Paribas Real Estate and Pudney Shuttleworth, has delivered a 13,000sq ft two-storey Pan-Asian restaurant operated by Kandaya Limited trading as Dozo. The lease is for a 20-year term at £94,500 per annum.
The restaurant is close to a main entrance to a 12-screen Empire cinema complex. Other occupiers include Gala Casino, Garland Leisure bowling, Nando's and Frankie & Benny's restaurants and 650 on-site car parking spaces.
The office market has attracted some investors who have been quick to spot investment opportunities in edge of city centre locations.
Recently, acting on behalf of Jeremy Middleton, Gavin Black & Partners has let the 1,742sq ft third floor at Quayside House, Wylam Wharf, to a creative design agency at £15,970 pax equating to £9.17psf.
However, much of Sunderland’s business function is carried on outside the city centre such as Nissan and at Doxford International where around 8,000 people are now employed by world-class companies such as Barclays, T-Mobile and Nike.
This success forms part of the city’s mission to become an entrepreneurial university city at the heart of a low-carbon regional economy, making more of its key assets in particular Nissan and its electric vehicle technology, the university, the port and the potential offered by new offshore wind farms and the creation of a new business district in the city centre.
This vision for the Sunderland economy will be achieved through five aims to be a new kind of university city; a national hub of the low-carbon economy; a prosperous and well- connected waterfront city centre; an inclusive city economy for all ages’ and a one-city approach to economic leadership – all driven forward by an enterprising city council that should see Sunderland being the first city in Britain to offer wall-to-wall superfast broadband coverage by this summer.
:: Chris Dobson is a commercial property marketing specialist