- British Land brought together retailers and the local community to celebrate Teesside’s 25th birthday
London, 2016-Oct-27 — /EPR Retail News/ — Teesside, Stockton celebrated its 25th birthday at the weekend with events that brought together retailers, consumers, the centre team and the local community.
Since opening in October 1991, Teesside has welcomed more than 150 million shoppers through its doors and made an important contribution to the Tees Valley as a driver of regeneration, jobs, training, economic success and caring for the local community.
A £30m complete transformation of the scheme is underway and includes the introduction of new, double-height bespoke glazed shopfronts, a new management suite with improved customer facilities, the creation of smaller units and high quality public realm. Facade improvement works have already been completed on 15 units this year with more planned for 2017.
New retailers introduced to the scheme as a result of the refurbishment so far include Paperchase, Moss Bros, Charles Clinkard, Holland & Barrett, Nando’s and EE. Both River Island and Next have upsized to 16,700 sq ft overall and 55,000 sq ft overall respectively. The combination of all of the above has resulted in increases in dwell time, frequency, retail conversion and catering spend and an innovative new food concept will be launched next month.
The centre contributes £50 million each year to the Tees Valley economy and 6% of all business rates collected by Stockton and Middlesbrough Councils, worth £8.7 million a year, come from Teesside. The centre supports 1 job in every 100 with up to 2,400 jobs at the centre. 80% of people who work at Teesside live in Stockton and Middlesbrough and there are currently 30 apprentices at the centre learning while they earn.
Teesside also supports the local community with £234,000 contributed over the last five years which has benefitted local people, charities and community groups. Over the past five years almost 1,300 school children have chosen free books and taken part in fun, educational literacy events at Teesside as part of British Land’s long term sponsorship of the National Literacy Trust’s Young Readers Programme.
Teesside is ranked the number two UK retail park by Javelin and the number four UK super park by CACI and is one of the best trading schemes in the country for many retailers.
Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail & Leisure for British Land, said: “We are extremely proud to have been at the heart of the Tees Valley community since 1991. We continue to invest in Teesside in response to the changing ways people live their lives to ensure it remains an outstanding place for modern consumer lifestyles for the next 25 years.”
Teesside comprises 475,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space and is home to more than 50 retail and leisure brands including Marks & Spencer, Next, H&M and River Island.
Notes to Editors
We are one of Europe’s largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London offices. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed, of £20.0 billion (of which British Land share is £14.6 billion) as valued at 31 March 2016. Our properties are home to over 1,200 different organisations ranging from international brands to local start-ups. Our objective is to deliver long term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people’s everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to finance these places effectively.
Retail assets account for 50% of our portfolio which is well matched to the different ways people shop today. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising over 20 million sq ft of retail space across multi-lets, superstores, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.
Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 48% of our portfolio, is focused on London. We have an attractive mix of high quality buildings in well managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our Offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.5 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent’s Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share).
The remaining 2% of our portfolio is at Canada Water where we have a 46 acre redevelopment opportunity in our medium term pipeline. Our industry-leading sustainability strategy is a powerful tool to deliver lasting value for all our stakeholders. By supporting communities, improving environments and growing economies, we create Places People Prefer and enhance long term returns.
In April 2016 British Land received the 2016 Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development as part of Her Majesty The Queen’s 90th birthday honours. The Award is the UK’s highest accolade for business success and is given to companies which bring major economic, social and environmental benefits through their own business success. It was awarded to British Land for continuous achievement in all these areas over the last five years.
Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.
Investor Relations:
Jonathan Rae
British Land
020 7467 2938
Media Relation:
Pip Wood
British Land
020 7467 2838
Jackie Janssen
British Land
020 7467 3449
Emma Hammond
FTI Consulting
020 3727 1227
Gordon Simpson
Finsbury Group
020 7251 3801
Source: British Land
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