Abrdn has completed its letting of around two-thirds of the former Debenhams anchor store at Newbury Parkway Shopping Centre to Primark as the value fashion chain commits to four UK stores and announces a major expansion of its Metrocentre home.
The former Debenhams store has been vacant since 2022. In April 2020 the department store chain appointed administrators as it became engulfed in financial difficulties heightened by the pandemic lockdowns.
Primark is taking 35,000 square feet across the ground and first floor, with the second floor yet to be leased.
Aberdeen Standard Investment’s Pooled Pension Fund bought Parkway in 2008 for £100 million. In 2020 it signed Next for a 50,000-square-foot store at the vacated John Lewis at Home store.
Sovereign Centros, the asset manager bought by CBRE at the end of last year, has also signed Primark for an expansion of its space at Metrocentre, the super-regional mall in Gateshead.
Primark is adding 14,100 square feet of trading space to anchor Exhibition Square at the mall in an 80,000-square-foot store. Primark first opened in Metrocentre 20 years ago.
Conor Walsh, director of sales UK, South West and North East for Primark, said in a statement: “We are excited to be extending our popular Gateshead Metrocentre store to give our customers more of what they love from Primark, which means great value with an enhanced shopping experience and extended product offer."
The extended Primark at Gateshead Metrocentre is part of a recently announced investment of over £100 million in its UK stores, 50 years after it first opened in Great Britain. It will be opening another four stores in the UK.
The first will open in Bury St Edmunds on March 6, followed by Teesside Park and Glasgow Fort later this year. Primark has also confirmed two new locations in Epsom, Surrey, and Newbury, Berkshire, which will open from 2025.
Primark is one of the most prized tenants on the UK high street. For a review of how the Irish group has expanded and is now targeting growth in America click here.
FMX and Lunson Mitchenall are leasing agents at Parkway. Lunson Mitchenall and Time Retail Partners are leasing agents at Metrocentre.