26 ANNIVERSARY


of people over the years. Among them was Ron McCarthy, design director for Stadium Developments in 1992 who was responsible for The Oasis Food Court in Meadowhall, Sheffield. McCarthy would address the matter of theming and focal leisure points at the ICSC conference in 1992. It was in 1986 that Andy Grant of Grant Leisure worked with Ian


Pierce, the MD of Sheerwater Developments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rosehaugh, on a project that evolved into Bluewater. “We put together a plan for leisure and entertainment which


included rides, shows, and attractions, integrated into the other leisure elements which included movie theaters, restaurants and, of course retail. Lend Lease then acquired the property from Sheerwater and that brought the concept architect Eric Kuhne of CivicArts into the design/ development story.” Today Grant who runs his global leisure consultancy business Grant


Leisure from the US, believes that there is little division between retail, leisure, and entertainment. His clients have included Lend Lease and Aldar and the company is currently working on a major restore and retail development in Aquaba, Jordan. “In all mixed-use developments, they are combined and the


consumer demands it,” he says. “All three of them have a symbiotic relationship which feed from each other to create a leisure and entertainment critical mass that supports the retail shopping. And if you look at the theme park industry today, you will find that there are no new free-standing theme parks. They have all been integrated into resorts such as Universal Florida and Disneyworld, just to name a few.” “Leisure and hospitality tenants and brands were an after-thought


for most retail developments before Edmonton Mall inCanada and the Mall of America in the USA,” says Karl Kalcher of MindFolio, which develops visions, brand experiences, conceptual masterplans and feasibility analyses for leisure, retail and other environments. “Leisure will, in due course, become the critical success factor for


any retail environment; indeed for some projects it already is,” adds Kalcher, , who brought retailer Timberland to the UK and who, as senior vice president of the Lego Group, led design and retail strategies for the Legoland sites in Windsor and California. “While many developers focused on cinemas as their key anchor, they overlooked a massive parallel opportunity – food and dining – and a complementary necessity – place making.”


But Kalcher also issues a note of caution. “Considering the net cost versus net gain, traditional retail anchors


can be replaced by a critical mass of differentiation as footfall magnets and profit generators,” he says. “The best option by far, and for the foreseeable future, is food and dining, but only if asset managers understand that they have to inject creativity and strategy into an area which for too long was a fairly mediocre and formulaically need-driven adjunct to their core fashion business.” “Over the past decade we have seen a close convergence of retail


and leisure because consumers are, by their very nature, aspirational beings,” says Paul Soanes, CEO of Brandspace. “We expect to enjoy


“Leisure will become the critical success factor for any retail environment”


ourselves, especially when we’re shopping. Having traditionally competed for consumers’ time and money, the retail and leisure industries understand that there is too much overlay for them both not to benefit from each other. Occupying the same environments and further blurring the lines between leisure and retail therefore makes perfect sense. “Today it is perfectly normal for a shopping centre to have, or be


January 2007


January 2007


March 2007


to extend Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre into a 1.3m sq ft retail destination were given the go-ahead.


Ivanhoe Cambridge’s plans


to anchor Grosvenor’s 1.6m sq ft Tithebarn project in Preston.


SHOPPING CENTRE October 2011 www.shopping-centre.co.uk John Lewis agreed


Capital Shopping Centres sold 40 per cent of its 90 per cent stake in Metrocentre to the investment arm of the Singapore government for £426m.


May 2007


its 1m sq ft Telford shopping centre to a joint venture between Apollo Real Estate and Hark Group for £442m.


Universities Superannuation Scheme sold


20 YEARS Leading the industry for


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40