The new owner of Princes Quay has mapped out in detail his ambitious plans to breathe exciting new life into the shopping centre on stilts.
Aaron Mellor says he wants to create the high street of the future at the 30-year-old city centre landmark, which spans almost 300,000 sq ft.
His plans include turning the whole of the centre’s Harbour Deck into an artisan food hall, attracting new experimental digital-based retailers, turning vacant units into pop-up spaces for artists, hosting hot desk offices for up to 500 workers and opening a roof-top “container park” featuring street food stalls and pop-up stores outside the car park entrance to the existing Vue cinema.
The founder of bar and club chain Toyko Industries also intends to bring his company’s own brands, such as BrewDog, Red’s True Barbecue, Dough Eyed Pizza, Grindsmith Coffee and Get Baked, into the centre together with new leisure operators to open alongside existing tenants Nando's and Pizza Express.
Outside, he wants to moor barges and boats on the former dock to create floating food and drink venues as well as a new pontoon-style covered event deck.
Ultimately, Mr Mellor is also looking at the possibility of developing a cluster of high-rise apartment blocks at the site.
He said: “Tokyo Industries has purchased the centre with a vision to pivot the scheme to a more independent-feeling multi-functioning hub of mixed retail, heavily-enhanced food and beverage, intelligent co-working and live/work residential.
“The aim is to create a really new exciting creative food and beverage destination right in the city centre and linking onto Princes Dock Street, which is already a vibrant night-time economy, and the awesome Humber Street, which is one of the most creative and exciting streets we have seen in the 海角视频. This all links perfectly.
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“High Street retail is really struggling and there was already a serious move to online retailing, but Covid-19 has accelerated this migration by five years.
“The generic high street of ‘Anytown, Anywhere’ is no longer valid. City centres must react and adopt. We need a new exciting independent retail, the creators, the entrepreneurs and the visionaries.
“The people that will be making the difference on the high street in the next 10 years are not the monolith mega brands but new exciting start-ups.
“They generate culture and break the rules and Tokyo Industries also owns key equity slices in these influencer markets.”
As well as operating 32 bars, clubs and venues across the 海角视频, his company also operates a number of online fashion, art, photography and virtual reality businesses. It launched six years after Princes Quay welcomed its first shoppers.
Headquartered in Hertfordshire but with a strong focus in the North with venues in Newcastle, Manchester and York, the company recently acquired Hull’s legendary Welly Club and the Hullboxoffice.com platform. Princes Quay had been taken over by lenders in 2019, after it went into receivership. Savills was appointed to work with the management team there, Realm, while also taking over Myton Retail Park. Hull City Council swooped for the latter late last year.
'Prinny Quay' as it is affctionally referred to, came to being as the US indoor mall model swept the 海角视频. Across the water Freshney Place was also appearing in Grimsby. It features 88 units as well as the 10-screen Vue cinema and 916-space car park.
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Mr Mellor said Hull would be at forefront of a revolution in the way we shop following the undisclosed deal.
“The future of shopping needs to be experimental, creative and imaginative – a real world download from a digital online influence.
“All the big established brands are falling to the hands of young ‘it will never catch on’ start-ups. Boohoo has purchased Debenhams, Asos has purchased Topman and Topshop so we need to adapt the way we consider high street retail and shopping in general.”
He said the former Topshop unit in Princes Quay, set to be occupied by New York-based DROPP.TV’s first global augmented reality store, is an example of the what the future will look like inside the shopping centre.
“The concept is that customers walk into a totally empty store using their mobile phones to scan the same store populated with one-off luxury designer items not available anywhere else but from this digital store ‘geofenced’ inside the old Topshop in Hull.
“They can purchase everything online and it’s delivered to the store – not their home – the next day for them to try on, take home or return.
“It’s part retail, part art, it’s creative, it’s experimental and it’s a talking point that people will share.”
Under the plans, almost all of the shopping centre is set for a radical facelift.
The proposed Habour Deck artisan food hall will operate alongside a 1,200-capacity creative events space, an art gallery and a micro-brewery, while currently redundant former retail storage areas will be turned into new restaurants and diners.
Larger existing outlet stores are set to be consolidated together, creating new space for pop-up offices aimed at creatives, start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Mr Mellor said: “We need the city council to assist in supporting desk spaces for people with ideas and vision but not the money to do it.
“This is how change is made and this also makes perfect sense for the regeneration of city centre shopping malls.
“Adding 500 hot desks with easy parking and great transport makes sense, it pivots from failing retail adding mouths that need feeding each lunchtime and buying retail on their way home.
“We believe the future for shopping malls is to become integrated work, eat, shop and play spaces.”
The long-term residential vision for the site is, for the moment, the final phase of his grand plan for Princes Quay.
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“We need to bring in serious developer friends to deliver this element as a joint venture with the intention to create statement apartment towers that enhance the skyline over a new vision of Princes Quay and a new chapter for Hull.
“Changes will take time, this is a big ship to turn, we are a small company but with huge ideas.
“We can make a difference, but we need the support of others to make all this connect.
“It’s exciting and it’s the future of our high streets and the future of our city centres.”