Festival Place has further strengthened its position as North Hampshire’s premier shopping, dining and leisure destination with the letting of Typo, opening for the first time in Basingstoke.
Australian stationery and gift retailer, Typo, is set to open in a 2,190 sq ft unit. The arrival will boost the homeware offer at Festival Place, joining Home Sense, Flying Tiger Copenhagen, Laura Ashley, Pro Cook, Next and Marks & Spencer.
Acquired by AEW in December 2015, a two-year refurbishment and rebranding programme has led to a greater tenant mix, having introduced 30 new brands to Basingstoke, including more aspirational retailers such as Jack Wills. According to CACI research, 24% of shoppers now visit more often because the choice of shops has changed and 13% visit more often because of changes to the look-and-feel of the centre. Additionally, 60 existing tenants have renewed their leases with several, such as Fat Face, choosing to upgrade or refurbish their stores. This further demonstrates retailer confidence in the scheme, following the substantial repositioning of the centre.
Neil Churchill, Centre Director, said: “Festival Place has gone from strength-to-strength and we’re thrilled with the success the centre has experienced throughout the repositioning programme. It’s encouraging and rewarding to see the scheme come to life, attract new retailers to the town, including the recent opening of Home Sense, part of TJX Europe, encourage existing tenants to upsize, extend and renew their leases and also to improve the customer experience. The increasingly aspirational retail offer complements the variety of dining and leisure now present in the centre.”
Ranked 17th in the 2018 Global Data Survey for shopping centre destinations and 21st in 2018 by Trevor Wood Associates, putting it in the Premier League of shopping centres, Festival Place is the highest ranked shopping centre located outside a major city. Outperforming other UK in-town shopping centres, shoppers are visiting the largest retail and leisure destination in North Hampshire more frequently and spending more time and money compared to national averages. Almost half of those visiting Festival Place more frequently do so because of changes to the centre. The amount shoppers are spending and the average retail spend have both increased when compared to 2016, prior to the refurbishment work commencing.
Festival Place is home to more than 200 retail, dining and leisure brands including Apple, Zara, River Island, Fat Face, GAP, Jack Wills and SuperDry. The leisure offer features a 10-screen Vue Cinema, a Flip Out trampoline park which features the UK’s first NinjaTAG interactive obstacle course, a health club with swimming pool, badminton and squash courts plus 27 restaurants including Côte Brasserie, wagamama, GBK, PizzaExpress, Las Iguanas, The Sushi Maki and Patisserie Valerie.
Joint agents for Festival Place are Lunson Mitchenall and Cushman & Wakefield. CBRE is the managing agent for the centre.
