Merry Hill owner steps up investment in centre
THE owner of Merry Hill has increased its funding plans to revamp the popular Black Country shopping centre.
Intu announced last year it had earmarked around £85 million to ‘remodel and reposition’ the centre in Brierley Hill after it acquired the 50 per cent it did not own in June for £410 million.
In its annual results published this week, Intu said it now expected to spend around £110 million across several different projects at the centre.
The statement said: “Owning 100 per cent of Merry Hill allows us to advance the many improvement opportunities more rapidly and, due to its size, the returns should be meaningful.
“The first steps are already under way through taking back the former Sainsbury’s store to facilitate sizeable re-tenanting transactions (and) River Island and JD Sports have both upsized.
“We have several projects expected to cost around £110 million to deliver our strategy for the centre.
“These include right-sizing a number of anchors and major space users, which in turn will reduce the number of smaller units, and repositioning the catering and leisure offering.
“We believe the centre presents a significant opportunity to reengineer and update the tenant mix. “Encouraging large flagship formats and reducing the number of smaller units will make the centre more attractive to retailers and customers, and improve the rental tone.
“This strategy is similar to that which has been successfully implemented at two other sites – intu Trafford Centre and intu Lakeside.”
In January, Intu announced it had started work on revamping the bus station at Merry Hill in conjunction with Transport for West Midlands.
Intu statement