MALLS FACE MELTDOWN
Store closures will trigger crash
MORE than 200 major shopping centres are at risk of closure.
The loss of BHS, House of Fraser and Toys R Us has caused “downward spiral” in the outlets, says a report.
Malls desperate for new stores to open could close in the coming months. Analyst Nelson Blackley said: “It’s a trend that’s moving very quickly. You don’t necessarily want to be in the business of owning shopping centres at the moment.
“People are suggesting a number of leading national retailers are on the edge and may close, and that would bring shopping centres down with them.
“The collapse of BHS, two years ago, left empty units in around 200 shopping centres and more than half of those large, empty units have not yet been filled.”
Mr Blackley, who works for the National Retail
Research Knowledge
Exchange Centre, blamed online stores such as
Amazon.
He added: “If centres close, particularly in small towns, it will be utterly catastrophic.
“We have too many of them, doing exactly the same – the same range of stores and products – and basically that’s not attractive. You can’t fill shopping centres with nail bars and vape shops.”
Mr Blackley claimed the modern shopping centre will become a thing of the past.
He said: “Some of the big centres in the UK are incorporating Sea Life Centres, ice rinks, indoor ski slopes.
“These are the shopping centres that, in my view, will survive.”
Simon Cooke, from property asset management APAM, called for the government to kick-start the regeneration of shopping centres.