Latest news
Shopping Centre Development Pipeline 2011
Date Posted: 08/06/2011
As Foundation Recruitment have documented previously, only five new shopping centres and six shopping centre extensions opened in 2010. The development pipeline this year has increased by 15% in comparison and just over 2.7million sq ft of new shopping centre space is scheduled to open. Whilst an increase is positive, this figure is slightly skewed as the majority of new space is the opening of Westfield’s Stratford City scheme in London, totalling around 1.9million sq ft of this amount; the remaining space is made up of Parkway Newbury and Trinity Walk, Wakefield.
This lack of Shopping Centre development is of course mainly due to the current economic climate but it does have a significant impact on recruitment within the Shopping Centre arena. When a new shopping centre is launched, naturally a vacancy is created for a new Centre Manager and new Operations manager as well as other staff in the management team. This lack of development pipeline has meant that new shopping centre vacancies have been a little bit sporadic and the ambitious individuals looking for a new challenge are required to wait for an individual to retire or move away from the industry. When vacancies have arisen, Foundation Recruitment has found that there is fierce competition for roles and the high profile schemes especially are receiving a large candidate response.
This lack of shopping centre development unfortunately does not look to become any more positive in 2012, with new shopping centre completions at virtually zero – the only projected delivery of addition sqft in 2012 appears to be a few small extensions. And in 2013, at this point, Land Securities’ Trinity seems to be the only development to complete, adding an impressive 1million sqft to the regenerated space within central Leeds.
There is reportedly over 50million sq ft of planned shopping centres on hold or waiting for improvements. We hope that the apparent retailer demand for new space in UK, which is compounded by the entry of international retailers such as Hollister and Apple, may assist in pushing forward some of the projects that are currently on hold. The new retailers will employ more people and importantly help the national and local economies grow.
Those individuals who do want to secure a new Centre Manager position or Operations Manager position in 2011 may be able to achieve the challenge due to the expected growing level of investment in Shopping Centres in 2011. According to Colliers International, the banks will be the main vendors this year as the next wave of receivership sales go on the market. Often, however not always, when a new landlord takes over a scheme it can lead to un-rest in the management team and new vacancies are sometimes created. This coupled with the natural attrition seen within any industry will no doubt see this year continuing to be an interesting year for Foundation Recruitment.