C&W Jointly Advise In Respect of 50,000 sq ft MSU Shopping Centre Letting to Primark
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The Challenge
Following the insolvency of a former tenant, County Mall Shopping Centre had a significant void unit totalling 8,600 sq ft (2.25% of total net area) adjacent to one of its two anchor stores. Primark occupied a poorly configured and undersized store elsewhere in the town.
The Challenges were:
Find a means of creating 50,000 sq ft within County Mall to accommodate a new Primark store.
Negotiate lease surrenders from nearby occupiers accordingly.
Negotiate a relocation with Primark from their existing freehold premises.
The Solution
Step 1:
Undertake various onsite meetings with surveyors and architects to design a well configured space which would meet Primark’s requirements. This included amalgamating several existing units as well as extending the existing envelope of the shopping centre.
Step 2:
Unconditional surrenders were agreed with all of the existing tenants with the exception of Monsoon/Accessorize who are a desirable tenant. After detailed negotiations C&W agreed a relocation for Monsoon/Accessorize to premises on the prime pitch within County Mall.
Step 3:
Primark were averse to the principle of moving from a freehold site to a leasehold site within Crawley thereby weakening their interest. On the basis that we had successfully designed an extremely well configured and located premises, we negotiated a new 25 year lease which appeased their concerns.
The Results
Primark secured a new 50,000 sq ft MSU in Crawley with a significantly better configuration than their existing freehold store.
Our client secured a new 25 year lease with one of the best performing and strongest retail covenants in the UK.