Intu takeover called off

Charlie Wells
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The intu in Milton Keynes will be interesting one to see what happens, as it's effectively bolted on to the side of the much bigger Centre:MK shopping centre. Since the lockdown Debenhams have announced that their store in (intu) MK won't reopen.

I'm guessing it'll either survive or be taken over by the Centre:MK. Though the Centre:MK now a large House of Fraiser unit empty, and the former BHS site was only finally re-opened as a Primark last year, so I'm not sure how they'd fill the space. However with plans for the rather bleak and fairly empty Food Centre units nearby to be bulldozed for housing the few remaining shops in there might move into one of these two centres.
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Andrew
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Besides Broadmarsh, I'd guess pretty much most of them will survive, they'll be some buy out or something.

They are all either modern, or at the heart of the city centre or a key destination within the region

There are many worse shopping centres around
Martin Phillp
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KPMG are handling Intu's administration.

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/int ... 1593181452
TVF's London Lite.
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WillPS
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https://www.gov.uk/government/news/broa ... iquidation

Broadmarsh handed back to the leaseholder (the council).

Intu really were a disaster for Nottingham
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james2001
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What's going to happen to the Broadmarsh now? Is it going to stay as a half-demolished shell that you now have to take a long detour around to get to and from the train station, or are they going to actually do something about it? After BHS closed and Argos moved into a Sainsbury's a couple of miles away it's been a deserted shell anyway, if it wasn't part of the route to and from the train station nobody would have gone near it for years because there was little worth going in there for (apart from maybe Fopp, but you still had to walk past rows of empty units to get there, so it was unappealing), you'd think being somewhere that thousands of people walked through every day they'd have actually been able to make a success of it, but it basically slowly went to ruin and neglect during the 20-odd years they ran it down for the planned redevelopment (and passing though the hands of several different owners) that never happened, until last year anyway.
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WillPS
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james2001 wrote: Sun 05 Jul, 2020 20.21 What's going to happen to the Broadmarsh now? Is it going to stay as a half-demolished shell that you now have to take a long detour around to get to and from the train station, or are they going to actually do something about it? After BHS closed and Argos moved into a Sainsbury's a couple of miles away it's been a deserted shell anyway, if it wasn't part of the route to and from the train station nobody would have gone near it for years because there was little worth going in there for (apart from maybe Fopp, but you still had to walk past rows of empty units to get there, so it was unappealing), you'd think being somewhere that thousands of people walked through every day they'd have actually been able to make a success of it, but it basically slowly went to ruin and neglect during the 20-odd years they ran it down for the planned redevelopment (and passing though the hands of several different owners) that never happened, until last year anyway.
This century it's only been owned by a joint venture between Westfield and the Post Office Pension Scheme and subsequently CSC who rebranded as Intu.

The schemes envisioned for the centre started extremely ambitious (like Westfield London in many ways) and have gone gradually downhill from there, ending with the scheme Intu had started executing which was more-or-less the same centre as now with space knocked in for a cinema and a bowling alley, plus a load of space for casual dining. Absolutely nothing done about opening up that pedestrian route, and it only got started because the council put up a third of the money needed. In some ways it's a good thing it was stopped in its tracks.

At the point CSC bought it Westfield had a contractor appointed for their scheme and were days away from getting started. It's fairly clear (to me at least) that they bought it in order to protect their fully-owned asset at the Victoria Centre.

My hope is that the council quickly demolish the BHS/Argos end of the centre so that, at the very least, the main pedestrian walkway to the square can be opened up. There still exists a huge opportunity for a developer to give Nottingham a modern right-sized centre. Viccy Centre is an appalling 60s mess of pillars, which is too expensive to sort out (hence why CSC stopped Broadmarsh from happening). Retailers like Apple want a presence in the city but there simply is no units which meet their specification, and it's been that way for 15 years now.

The question is, are any retail property developers in a mood to build such a centre? And if not, what can the council actually afford to do?

The temptation has always been to say 'just level it and build a park' - but that's totally unrealistic, not just because that'd generate zero return but also because Middle Hill, the tram viaduct and the yet-to-open bus station/car park/library composite (as well as the 'linear park' they're still intending to start building next month on Collin Street) are inextricably reliant on that portion of the mall's structure.

It's a bloody mess.
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Whataday
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WillPS wrote: Wed 24 Jun, 2020 17.19 Derby, St. Davids and the Arndale are fine for what they are too - although there does seem to be a strong correlation between how 'intu'y' a centre is and how crap it is, I agree.. It's more the role retail plays in a city centre atmosphere which is changing, and I'm not sure any of them are ready for a department store-less future.

Fortunately St Davids isn't managed by Intu. It's operated by is operated by Landsec, who jointly own the centre.
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WillPS
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The Intu firesale has ramped up recently. With the news that Metrocentre is sold, it seems only Chapelfield (Norwich), Trafford Centre and Uxbridge remain in the group (as well as stakes in St. Davids (Cardiff) and the Arndale (Manchester).

Trafford Centre was widely tipped to return to The Peel Group, but with them moving out now that seems rather unlikely.

Despite being one of the last centres under Intu's control, Chapelfield has recently rebranded, presumably as a precursor to a sale.

I can't wait to see the back of the stupid brand.

EDIT: forgot about Merry Hill, that one is also yet to go.
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Zimba
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WillPS wrote: Mon 26 Oct, 2020 13.43 The Intu firesale has ramped up recently. With the news that Metrocentre is sold, it seems only Chapelfield (Norwich), Trafford Centre and Uxbridge remain in the group (as well as stakes in St. Davids (Cardiff) and the Arndale (Manchester).

Trafford Centre was widely tipped to return to The Peel Group, but with them moving out now that seems rather unlikely.

Despite being one of the last centres under Intu's control, Chapelfield has recently rebranded, presumably as a precursor to a sale.

I can't wait to see the back of the stupid brand.

EDIT: forgot about Merry Hill, that one is also yet to go.
It hasn't been sold the Metro Centre, it's just being ran by someone else on behalf of the bondholders who have taken control of their asset. It's quite complicated but it's technically still owned by intu but not controlled by them but if someone decided that they wanted to purchase the whole of the intu then they'd get the Metro Centre.

It's only the Trafford Centre which is actively for sale, the rest of them are in a bit of a limbo being ran by management companies which their respective bondholders are getting in to try and up their value as they'd make a loss selling them currently.

https://reorg-research.com/images/intu+ ... re+new.jpg - That's the mess of the way everything is but the gold companies are pretty much where the splits will be under control of the holders of the bonds, loans, debentures etc.
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