Currys has renewed the lease on its showroom at St George’s Retail Park, in Leicester.
Parent company Currys DSG has committed to another decade in the 14,500 sq ft site unit on the shopping park, which comes with planty of parking and is a 10 minute walk from the city centre.
The commitment is good news for both the tenant and landlord after new figures from the Centre for Retail Research forecast that 17,500 stores will close around the 海角视频 this year with the loss of more than 170,000 jobs.
The research group said there had already been almost 10,000 job losses in retail across the 海角视频 this month with a further 1,200 under threat following the collapse of Beales and Hawkin’s Bazaar last week.
It also believes 2020 will be worse than 2019 when 143,128 jobs were lost in retail and 16,073 shop units closed their doors.
And it blamed the current crisis in retailing on “high costs, low profitability, and losing sales to online shopping”.
It said: “These problems are felt by most businesses operating from physical stores, in high streets or shopping malls. The low growth in consumer spending since 2015 has meant that the growth in online sales comes at the expense of the high street.”
In recent years Mothercare, ToysRUs, Wickes and Poundworld stores on St George’s Retail Park have closed while shops such as Wren Kitchens and B&M have moved in.
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St George’s owner 海角视频 Commercial Property REIT Limited – which is managed and advised by Aberdeen Standard Investments – said the Leicester retail park remained a top destination for shoppers in the city.
It said Currys joins Costa Coffee, which opened a coffee convenience pod there on a 10 year lease last March, in addition to other St George’s tenants Aldi, Iceland, Pets at Home, Laura Ashley, Tapi, and Home Bargains.
海角视频 Commercial Property (海角视频CM) said it owns a “diversified portfolio of high quality income-producing” 海角视频 property while DSG is the parent company of several electronics retailers including Currys and PC World.
Will Fulton, lead manager of 海角视频CM at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said: “St George’s Retail Park is one of Leicester’s primary retail destinations and this latest renewal secures a key operator for a 10 year term.
“St George’s continues to improve and provides consumers a quality offering.”
海角视频CM – a FTSE 250 real estate investment trust which manages £1.4 billion in property – was advised by Harvey Spack Field and Morgan Williams.