Mall retailing: opportunity knocks

The big shopping centre openings of this autumn in Cardiff and Aberdeen mark the end of the late noughties development boom. And the inevitable empty units stand testimony to the new reality of shopping centre development.

With a small number of exceptions - notably Westfield at Stratford - for the time being, the property industry’s side of the job is going to be about asset management. Filling voids and low-cost refurbishments aren’t as glamorous as building new centres but that’s the reality of today’s market.

The interesting question is what the shopping centre of the future will look like. The market will return of course, but whether, in the multichannel age, it will return sufficiently to support 500,000 sq ft or more centres in second-tier retail locations is another matter.

The likelihood is that the model will have to change. Giant anchor stores subsidised by the tenants of the smaller unit shops may not be practical in the future. A greater leisure element is likely to be required to make shopping centres places people want to spend their time.

But the tough market is good news for those retailers that are defying the downturn. There are opportunities to open more stores and secure better deals than in recent memory - the only issue is how many retailers are equipped to take advantage of them.