Month: February 2024

AS Retail are very excited to announce that all four retail units of the split of the former Next store in Lower Precinct Coventry have now been let. It has been a huge team effort from the landlord and tenant project teams with fit out works commencing shortly.

Three of the brands are new to the city which is testament to the improvements to Coventry City Centre over the last few years and the exciting times ahead of it.

Søstrene Grene, the expanding Danish home store, have taken the entire upper mall space between River Island and 02 of approx. 6,500 sq ft. The Fragrance Shop and Cards Direct have taken two of the three units on the Lower Mall between Pandora and Sherbourne Arcade mall with The Works taking the remaining unit sitting in-between them for their relocated and upsized store.

We look forward to seeing all four brands open and trading soon.

AS Retail are the letting agents for Lower Precinct and conducted three of the four transactions. Wright Silverwood and Space are our joint agents. Haynes Illingworth acted for Søstrene Grene, CBRE acted for The Fragrance Shop.

Following hot on the heels of the opening in Maidenhead, our clients Cards Direct have just opened their second store in 2024, this time at Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre in Sheffield.

Cards Direct have acquired a new long-term lease on the 1,500 sq ft former Shoe Zone store where West Mall meets Central Atrium. It sits in a highly prominent location close to WH Smith, Fragrance Shop, Deichmann and Iceland.

Andrew Shepherd, director at AS Retail commented “Two more openings in quick succession is a great start to 2024 for Cards Direct and there will be more to come across England during the course of the year.”

More openings are already in the pipeline for this year and we are still searching for more sites across the UK. Please contact us to discuss the requirement further or send through anything you have of interest to Andrew Shepherd at AS Retail.

Douglas Stevens & Co advised the landlord.

Our clients have just opened their 25^th UK showroom in the picturesque town of Cheltenham.

BoConcept have acquired a lease on the former Hammonds furniture store at Unit 2, Market Place Retail Park. Totalling 3,845 sq ft of retail space over a single level and sitting immediately adjacent to Schmidt Kitchens, the showroom is highly visible from Fairview Road, the inner-ring road.

Andrew Shepherd, Director at AS Retail, who conducted the negotiations on behalf of our client commented “We have been searching for the perfect property in Cheltenham for BoConcept for some time and are thrilled to have secured this superb location. We do have selected requirements for 2024 and please contact me to discuss any sites which might be of interest.”

BoConcept originated in 1952 as a small store in Demark and are now one of the globe’s largest furniture and lifestyle retailers with over 300 showrooms in 60 countries and with a strong UK presence including stunning showrooms in London, Cardiff, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Inspired by Danish design, the store is full of beautifully designed furniture, storage ideas and accessories with experts to help with the perfect style for every home.

John Ryde Commercial acted for the landlord in the negotiations. Pinney Talfourd advised BoConcept on the legals.

We are thrilled that the new six-screen boutique Reel cinema has now opened at Brightwells Yard in Farnham.

Brightwells sits in the town centre of lovely Farnham, Surrey. It’s an open air, street-scaped 35 unit mixed use development set around gardens and a new town square alongside 250 apartments and a new car park. Reel are the first commercial occupier to open at this fantastic new development with Coppa Club also committed to the scheme. We will be announcing further new additions to Brightwells shortly and are looking forward to getting occupiers open and trading for the warmer weather.

We at AS Retail are the commercial leasing agents for the development and please contact either Andrew or Kathryn to discuss current availability for retail, catering and leisure uses as we have spaces ranging from 700 – 8,000 sq ft that would suit national, regional and independent occupiers.