Chance to see what North-East can offer

Nov 6 2007 By The Journal

THE BCSC Conference and Showcase has been running for many years and attracts people from all over the country including retailers, developers, shopping centre managers and advisers.

It is known as the property industry’s domestic learning and deal-making event of the year, and this year the Sage Gateshead is the backdrop for the conference. As well as attracting high-profile speakers including Sir John Hall, Lord Coe, Sir Bob Geldof and many others, the conference is a get together for some of the major players in the retail property world.

Capital Shopping Centres, owners of Eldon Square Shopping Centre, will be attending the conference and no doubt taking the opportunity to show how the redevelopment of the centre is going. It is well under way and the introduction of a new café-style culture to the centre with the opening of Strada and Wagamama is a great boost to the city centre. The addition of Debenhams and more modern street level malls will greatly improve Newcastle’s retail offering.

Multiplex are another organisation attending the conference. They have for some time owned an area of Pilgrim Street earmarked for a development that would be a natural extension to Northumberland Street, Newcastle’s prime retail location. Haymarket Hub at the other end of Northumberland Street has now started on site and already pre-lets are in place.

Big-name retailers such as Lakeland, Pier and Ortak continue to trade successfully in Eldon Garden and new tenants have been signed up for Eldon Garden in recent weeks - storeys:ssp are agents for both the Haymarket Hub and Eldon Garden.

There are several other mixed-use schemes under way with a retail content. This includes Downing Plaza on the site of the former S&N HQ building at Gallowgate.

A mixed-use scheme of 650,000sqft, this will include a hotel, offices, student accommodation and ancillary leisure which is about to start on site soon. Again, storeys:ssp are agents. With Zone A rates in excess of £300, Newcastle is still one of the highest rented but most sought-after locations in the UK.

The Tesco scheme for Gateshead town centre is an attempt to provide the town with a viable alternative, although it also boasts the MetroCentre in the borough. Retailers visiting BCSC will get an opportunity to see Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland with the guided tours arranged by the conference organisers and hopefully they can see for themselves what the North-East has to offer.