Exchange Street Properties has completed work on a £3 million leisure development in Kidderminster town centre, with 85% of the space already let.
Riverside is a 12,000 sq ft restaurant / retail development in a prime central location in Kidderminster, which is expected to create more than 100 new jobs. It is adjacent to the 325,000 sq ft Weavers Wharf retail development, Tesco, Kidderminster College and Birmingham Metropolitan College.
Loungers, the informal, neighbourhood food led cafe/bar chain, has taken Unit 1, a 3,500 sq ft unit on a 15 year lease, Le Bistrot Pierre, a fast growing national restaurant chain offering French provincial cuisine has taken Unit 2, also of 3,500 sq ft, on a 25 year lease, while Unit 4, a 2,500 sq ft has been let to Coffee #1, part of S A Brains Ltd, on a 20 year term. Loungers and Coffee#1 have just completed their fit outs and opened. Le Bistrot Pierre will open in June (2017).
The new Riverside development, named after its outlook over the River Stour, is newly constructed on part of the former Brintons Carpet headquarters site, acquired by Exchange Street Properties in 2014. The remaining refurbished grade II listed office space has been sold as a headquarters building to an unnamed local company which will bring a further 150 jobs to the site.
Max Goucher, Director at Exchange Street Properties, says: “I am delighted to have completed construction of Riverside with 85% of the space already taken by serious national operators who can see the benefit of being in the improving Kidderminster town centre.
“Riverside’s striking glass and aluminium elevation, along with the opportunity to offer Alfresco dining on an attractive riverside boardwalk benefiting from a sunny southwest aspect, has also proved a real draw to this development.
“There is strong interest in the remaining unit of 2,000 sq ft which would suit a national, regional or local operator looking to benefit from the destination already created by our three tenants, as well as the high footfall around the development.
“Kidderminster has benefited from a £4 million public realm investment which is helping to encourage further private sector development of new facilities in the town centre, including, I hope in the near future, a cinema opposite Riverside.”