OPPORTUNITY SHOPS

May 14 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

Sunderland remains a strong retail destination despite easy access to the MetroCentre, Newcastle city centre and local towns such as South Shields says Mike Birkett.

CENTRED on Land Securities’ The Bridges shopping centre, Sunderland’s retail core embraces High Street West, Waterloo Street and Blandford Street. Clearly The Bridges is the dominant centre – it is large and under cover and has a good range of tenants paying Zone A rents in the region of £165 per sqft, just about half the value of Newcastle’s prime Northumberland Street.

What do retailers get for their money? Being a seaside town, one could argue that half its catchment area is covered by sea. It can only draw retail spend from the north, south and west where, respectively South Shields has a strong pull centred on King Street, the former coal towns of Ryhope, Murton, Easington and Seaham to the south offer little competition and to the west sits the large destination of Washington.

Within Sunderland itself is a diverse market with a population which is larger than Newcastle’s. So this alone is a good basis for retail. The market rumour that Tesco will take over units within Sunderland Retail Park could bring more retail spend into the city with a greater sense of activity, hopefully spilling over into the city centre.

The present concerns over retail spend and the demand for space suggests that prime rents will remain at the current level for another year.

Mike Birkett is director of retail agency at Atisreal.