Cardiff's Queens Arcade for sale at £33m

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 18, 2016

A shopping mall in the heart of Cardiff, Wales, has been put up for sale with a £33m price tag. The Queens Arcad houses tenants including New Look, Skechers, Argos, Supercuts, Mirage and Christopher George.

First developed in the 1990s, the 150,000-sq-ft property sees around 10m shoppers a year and was acquired by Addington Capital five years ago. However, it has been in the shadow of its much larger neighbour, the St David’s Shopping centre for some time.

St David’s has a stronger mix of big hitters including Accessorize, Bon Marche, Boots, Cath Kidston, Debenhams, H&M, Coast, Swatch, All Saints and Apple, to name just a few

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Analysts also said Queens Arcade is in need of refurbishment having been last spruced up.

That echoes a point made by footfall tracker Springboard earlier this week. Releasing September figures that showed UK shopping centres suffering more than other retail destinations last month, Springboard said that many malls are looking tired. It suggested they need both a revamp and a rethink about their tenant mix to better reflect modern consumers’ shopping habits.

Time Retail Partners, which is handling the Queens Arcade sale, said there are a number of active asset management initiatives for the future owners. And with a lack of quality properties available and the mall’s central location, it is expecting strong interest.