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
River Island, one of the biggest names on the High Street, is set to expand its current offering at The Grafton shopping centre in Cambridge. The company already has a small store at the location.
Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley has revealed exciting new plans that will create a much larger Primark store in the centre.
76 of 400 Tesco 24-hour stores will reduce their opening hours and will be closed between midnight and 6am.
Beauty brand L'Occitane and fashion chains Fat Face and Moss Bros are setting up shop in or around Westgate Centre, in Oxford’s city centre.
