What next for High St after 'the plunder of Woolies?'

By STEWART McINTOSH

THE plunder of Woolies will have a mixed impact on Scotland’s high streets, with units on prime sites quickly snapped up while many of those on secondary pitches may languish on the market for many months to come.

“It would be wrong to assume that smaller towns would necessarily take the longest to find new occupiers,” says Martin Gudaitis of property consultants Montagu Evans.

“Traditionally, Woolworths often occupied the largest store in a small town high street. New retailers seeking a presence in those kind of towns often struggled to find units of the right size – the Woolworths closures mean that they now have an opportunity to take the space they need. However, given the state of the market it’s certain that some of the units won’t be taken.”

Although heartened by some of the good news this week – Sainsbury seeking more space and good trading results over the festive season for some major retailers and for malls like The elements and Silverburn – Martin Gudaitis concedes that 2009 will be a very tough year for the sector.

Tom Johnston of Colliers CRE is sharply critical of press coverage of the demise of Woolworths and of the current state of the retail market.

“The fact is that Woolworths had been in trouble for a long time, their collapse was entirely predictable – as was MFI’s. They were lame ducks and they’ve been put down. The good news is that M&S,Debenhams and Next all report good trading over Christmas, yet the media focuses on the

Closed: the former Woolworths on Lothian Road, Edinburgh

lame ducks – making things look worse than they really are.”

As for the newly-available Woolworths units across Scotland, he is optimistic that occupiers will be found.

“Discount retailers like Pound Shop and B&M Retail have been trying to get into smaller Scottish towns but couldn’t find units of the right size. Now is their chance to expand their presence.”

Estelle Forrester, a retail specialist with CB Richard Ellis is optimistic that many of the Woolworth units will find new occupiers. “Despite the market, there are retailers out there looking for this kind of opportunity, for example Wilkinsons has decided to open its first Scottish outlet in Castle Douglas. There are other retailers out there who are

seeking to expand and many of them are looking for units in market towns.”

With 312 stores south of the Border, Wilkinson has taken a former Co-op store in the south-western town.

Estelle Forrester predicts that even some of the larger Woolworths stores might have difficulty in finding occupiers.

“I wonder about the Argyle Street unit. It’s just off prime and there are upper floors that are completely unused. In theory, it should be an attractive unit – but when you look at potential occupiers like Matalan or Primark etc, they already have the space they need in the city.”

Ironically, whether on prime city pitches or in small market towns, even in its death throes Woolworth’s is still a ‘pick and mix’ concept.

Capital office in 47k sq ft letting

Exclusive: Jim Dow

The Edinburgh office market has been given a significant boost with its biggest letting for over a year.

In a major coup for the city, Tesco Personal Finance is taking the entire 47,774 sq ft InterPoint development at Haymarket at a rent reckoned to be in the region of £25 a sq ft.

The development is by BAM Properties, which as HBG, sold it to the German real estate company, IVG, as one of a portfolio of office projects across the UK for which IVG paid £146 million.

Agents for InterPoint, Ryden and Jones Lang LaSalle, are

Interpoint at Haymarket

keeping mum until the wording of an announcement has been thrashed out with Tesco.

It’s a good month for the IVG-BAM partnership – on January 23 it will conduct the topping out ceremony of its Clarion office development in Wellington Street, Glasgow, which was also part of the £146m deal.

The 10-storey Clarion is on the site which was occupied by the now-demolished Apsley House.

A real Comprop Christmas!

Yes, we know that the festive period can be something of a disappointment – but what drove 147 of you to google ‘compropscotland’ on Christmas Eve? As for the 129 of you who tuned in on Christmas Day, had someone swiped your last chipolata?

When 150 of you shunned Hogmanay telly to read Jim Dow’s pre-Christmas analysis on ‘A light at the end of the tunnel’ we really began to worry about you. Then 154 of you were sober enough on New Year’s Day to locate Stewart McIntosh’s recent ‘Pound’s fall good for investment’ exclusive. Was there no Ginger Cordial in the house?

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