It’s been tough for Hull playing second fiddle to rival retail hubs such as Leeds and Meadowhall, but two major developments are bringing shoppers flooding back to the city. Liz Morrell reports

Hull looks likely to finally make it as a retail destination in its own right as the northern city steps out of the shadow of more developed retail markets, such as Leeds.

The opening of the£200 million St Stephen’s scheme last month has brought Hull’s retail offer up to date already. But the 540,000 sq ft (50,600 sq m) development will be followed in 2012 with the opening of Quay West, a£200 million extension to the Princes Quay centre.

St Stephen’s, an ING Real Estate mixed-use scheme being forward-funded by British Land, opened on September 20, with 33,000 shoppers passing through its doors on the opening day. Since then, footfall has continued to be high, according to ING development director Stephen Berry. “We’ve had 42,000 on a Saturday and 46,000 one Thursday,” he says. The centre’s anchors include the largest Tesco Extra store to open in the UK this year and a new-format Next.

For Hull, St Stephen’s finally offers retailers the modern retail space that they had been crying out for. The average size of units is estimated to be five times that of existing retailers in the city. And an£18 million redevelopment of Hull’s Paragon Station, which opened at the same time as St Stephen’s and provides integrated facilities for trains, buses and coaches, will deliver about 24,000 people to St Stephen’s each day. The new station is also helping bring shoppers back to the city, according to Berry.

“This has dragged an awful lot of people back to Hull and shown that there had been a leakage where people had gone to the likes of Leeds, York, Sheffield and Doncaster,” he says.

St Stephen’s has not only attracted retailers that were not in the city, such as H&M, Zara, Jane Norman and Select, but the development has also allowed Hull’s existing retailers – including Topshop, River Island, New Look, Oasis and Dorothy Perkins, to upgrade to large-format stores.

The developer’s insistence on double-height shopfronts has also paid off. “Most retailers have fitted out in extremely high quality,” Berry notes.

And trading appears to be strong. “From the anecdotal feedback, all the retailers seem to be trading well ahead of their opening expectations,” he says. “It’s really the result of the fact that nothing new in Hull has happened for a long time and shopping had become tired.”

There is still 20 per cent of space to let within the centre, including a couple of large units, but Berry is not worried by the vacancies. “All the indications are that they will let well. Hull has had a fairly negative image in the press and among people, but perceptions are starting to change. We are optimistic we will get it filled very soon,” he says.

QUAY FOCUS

The completion of the Quay West development will further strengthen the city’s retail offer, according to Chris Pyne, senior portfolio manager at Henderson Global Investors, which is joint owner of the development with Invista Real Estate.

The double-level scheme received outline planning consent in April for 657,695 sq ft (61,100 sq m) of retail and 171,690 sq ft (15,950 sq m) of leisure space. According to Pyne, the development is likely to include 65 to 85 stores, depending on their configuration, and a mix of department store anchors, major space units and standard retail units. These will lead into the Princes Quay scheme, which Henderson also owns, and detailed proposals are being thrashed out. “At the moment, we are working with Hull City Council and Hull City Build to put it together,” says Pyne.

He hopes work will begin on site late next year or in early 2009, for a scheduled opening date of 2012. A launch had been pencilled in for 2010, but a series of hold-ups, including the effect of the opening of St Stephen’s on the development, has pushed the opening date back. “Discussions with the anchor tenants have taken some time and St Stephen’s has attracted a lot of attention, so the retailers’ focus has been on that. It’s not been an appropriate time to advance the Quay West scheme, but that has all changed and its now full steam ahead,” says Pyne.

The developer hopes to unveil the scheme’s anchors either later this year or at the beginning of next year. The development will be fashion-led, but “will be an all-encompassing retail offer,” he says.

Pyne hopes that Quay West will complement St Stephen’s centre and help to finally provide a retail circuit for shoppers in Hull. “At the moment, it is very linear. We are trying to establish a circuit and bring a critical mass to Quay West,” he says.

Despite the remaining vacancies at St Stephen’s, Pyne insists there is room for both developments. He believes the city’s previously poor image has kept retailers away and he is confident the new offer will work. “We’ve conducted a lot of research into Hull. It’s a big city with a captive audience, but the leakage of retail spend out of Hull has been horrendous,” he says.

“Until now, there has not been a quality retail environment that’s attractive enough for shoppers to stay, so they have voted with their feet and gone elsewhere to the likes of Meadowhall – even though the nearest of the other centres is an hour and a quarter’s drive. St Stephen’s and Quay West seek to remedy that.”

Whether St Stephen’s can maintain its opening march remains to be seen.

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