The current owner Hermes had planned to spend £70 million investing in a complete overhaul of the shopping centre which would have included building a cinema plus many new shops and restaurants. This had originally been planned to start earlier this year but was postponed until 2018 due to planning issues over proposed changes to the entrance.
Instead there may now be no extension or just a further postponement as the UK developer British Land is reportedly close to completing the purchase of Royal Victoria Place.
British Land, the prospective purchasers of Royal Victoria Place are one of the UK's biggest property developers with an extensive portfolio of properties worth at least £13 billion, which includes the famous "Cheesegrater" building in the City of London. If the centre is sold to by Hermes to British Land, then the new owners will have the opportunity to invest further in their new property and still go ahead with the proposed extension to the shopping centre and add at least 10 new shops or restaurants.
Questions have been raised about whether the fact that there are a large number of shops empty in the shopping centre is related to the proposed extension. The fact that Hermes may have sold Royal Victoria Place is not supposed to be related to any difficulties involving the company but is said to be part of their long term overall investment strategy.
News in the same category
The Swedish fashion brand Monki are planning to open a new store in the UK following their successful launches in Manchester earlier this year and in the Westfield Stratford shopping centre in 2017.
It took a long time, but the information is now confirmed: Waitrose is due to open its first store in Leatherhead in 2016.
A new luxury store will shortly be the latest addition to the Victoria Quarter in Leeds when vacant units become occupied by interiors retailer Dowsing & Reynoldsto.
Announced as the largest shopping centre in the world, Dubai Holding's "Mall of the World" should extend over more than 14 million m². It will include a 7 km long shopping street, a theme park and 20,000 hotel rooms.
