200p Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 I was shocked today to find about 10 units have closed in Cascades shopping centre in Portsmouth today! Go towards the food mall and you'll see lots of shops have closed ! There are signs saying that the units are undergoing refurbishment - hmmm or is it the leases have gone up in amidst this retail downturn!!! Already gone i can remember, Cargo, a kitchen shop, kjc mobile phones, adams, hargreaves etc..... Pretty shocking when you go down there! Vision express look like they have moved accross to a smaller unit. Littlewoods gutted, and gadget shop boarded up A real ghostly area. Anybody else seen this? I ll take a photo on friday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Its time to buy Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) shop closures all in cascades - full list i can remember is KJC phones/ splish splash, mothercare relocated, sport and ski relocated, visison express downsized, cook and wash, ice cream/ jacket potato diner, american diner, gadget shop, christmas present/shop, officers club, index, littlewoods, hargreaves, adams. On the highstreet is allsports, walmsely furniture. I have about 10 pics in all but flood control is preventing me continuing the post! Edited February 11, 2006 by notanewmember Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marina Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 It may be something specific - but I noticed a significant number of shops having closing down sales in Windsor a while ago. Windsor is a very wealthy town, a sort of Chelsea/Kensington clone in Berkshire. I presume lots of retailers are finding it hard to make a living in this new consumer-spending driven miracle economy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Its time to buy Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) more. the second pic is of gadget shop i remember !!! Edited February 11, 2006 by notanewmember Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaitedSoLong Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) I'm noticing similar in central London at the moment. Walking down Tottenham Court Road the other day I noticed four units recently closed - there are a lot of smaller shops still advertising their January Sales (described as winter sales now that we've left January far behind) and some of the discounts are as big as 60%. Another sign of a downward trend is the return of dodgy traders running auctions in closed down stores on Oxford Street (a notorious scam) - when I moved to London in the early nineties there were always plenty of these, when the boom came in they got pushed out by real shops, now they're back. Edited February 11, 2006 by WaitedSoLong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Its time to buy Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 more more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlyMe Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 There is a ripple effect that occurs particulalrly with isolated shopping centres or even ones just slightly off main drags in shopping areas if they are not an a naturally populat walkthrough. Once a few shut down critical mass is lost, fewer people visit and this puts pressure on the remaining units until the point where there really is not visit the group of shops at all and they are all empty. Maybe there are other factors too - early leases at attactive rents and now the rents have been put up to full whack income is simply insufficent to cover the outgoings, of course then the ripple effect takes effect again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Its time to buy Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) as you can see by the love hearts on the thomson travel agents (pics above post) these are all taken today on the run up to valentines day feb 14th 2006. The pics below are shops not in cascades, but were in the highstreet netherless. Edited February 11, 2006 by notanewmember Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrliberty Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 Strange you know, I remember seeing similar scenes in the town where I grew up in the early 90's......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ETOPS773 Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) I don't remember the early 90s recession well, because is was only about 9 at the time but since then this is how I've always pictured what a recession would be like. Quite chilling! There is info on the Cascades website however which might explain part of this. There is a £20 million refurbishment program in progress until August 2007... Link to Cascades web site - refurbishment press release However I do smell a rat - it seems too convenient doesn't it? Edited February 11, 2006 by ETOPS773 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrliberty Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 don't remember the early 90s recession well, because is was only about 9 at the time but since then this is how I've always pictured what a recession would be like. Quite chilling! I know. This is what really bothers me. I'd really like to see prices come down to affordable (i.e. pre-boom) levels, but if this does happen everything else will likely turn sour too. Many of my friends and I left school and entered the marketplace during the middle of the last recession, and it was a shite state of affairs. It will affect different groups of people in different ways, from higher divource rates to higher crime. One thing you can be sure of is there will be very few who are totally unscathed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 They shut half of the arndale in Manchester for redevelopment ages ago - and it might be getting near completion now - what timing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Its time to buy Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 Upadate Was in cascades today - the staff at the food mall were all wearing black tops with the slogan "Cascades leftovers, Giza job!" I kid you not - I would nt make up such a thing! I ll try and get a photo.... Also allsports is now turning into a CHARITY SHOP called the YMCA -- yes you wouldnt believe it a charity shop in commercial road where all the "snobby" type shops are... This is a first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpo Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 In the Last few months I have noticed a steady uptick in the amount of office/commercial Space available in the heart of the economic miracle that we live in... The city of London. HSBC Benjys Pizza express. ( which I am quite upset about as I used to have luch there regularly ) and every street has advertisments for Office space to Let. won't be able to report from here much longer though, I'm being relocated in a few months to cheaper offices out Canary Wharf way. of course this is still relative... maybe its just I have started to notice it more... but i will miss Pizza Express Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammysnake Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 (edited) Im not sure about this Id probably say that due the Gunwharf keys people wont shop in central Portsmouth as it has very little to offer? unless of course your a chav? Actually I'd say we far too many shops in any city centre dont we? Its gine from saturation level maybe to a more sustainable level. In any case these are cuts in jobs which will all have a huge effect regardless Edited March 18, 2006 by sammysnake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
right_freds_dead Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 there is nothing worse than cascades OR irritating pop ups. or sites you press back and then ot takes you back to the site again. as if your going to think. 'oh well. may as well not go back and read on again'. and how many daily spam emails do i need saying... RE: cialis.donkey three men pharmacy in hot russian buttfock orgy sister../ RE: your ebay account RE: i am the president of the former state of umbaguaga...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
backtoparents Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 Jonpo I reckon Pizza Express were tipped off about your imminent move and are relocating to premises nearer your new workplace. btp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuyingBear Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 (edited) The bubble has spilled over to commercial property and yields are pretty crap. Some financial institutions have most probably pulled a TTRTR move and given the state of the retail sector a good number of their tenants have called their bluff and shutdown, including the major chains! The same thing happened in the early 90's, the insurance firms undertook some major rent hikes in many centers, the shops shut and subsequently sat empty for years on end, this usually induces an inverse cluster/network effect and the whole place goes down the nick. Edited March 18, 2006 by BuyingBear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpo Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 Jonpo I reckon Pizza Express were tipped off about your imminent move and are relocating to premises nearer your new workplace. btp Well, Checked it out recently and there is indeed a (still open) Pizza express in the top floor of CW shopping center. They must have seen me coming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ʎqɐqɹǝʞɐɥs Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 Well, Checked it out recently and there is indeed a (still open) Pizza express in the top floor of CW shopping center. They must have seen me coming Panic over! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicster Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 From another part of the country... There are lots of empty units in Bath. It was the same at the start of the last recession - I went away for a few months back then, came back and it seemed that half the shops had closed. Having said that there have been plenty of new units built, which strikes me as odd - they don't get filled or they do for very short periods (cheaper leases early on, like OnlyMe says). Things are going to be even tougher this time round - back then online shopping wasn't even a twinkle in a dot.commer's eye. Now where did I put that tumbleweed emoticon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trompe le monde Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 In the Last few months I have noticed a steady uptick in the amount of office/commercial Space available in the heart of the economic miracle that we live in... The city of London. HSBC Benjys Pizza express. ( which I am quite upset about as I used to have luch there regularly ) and every street has advertisments for Office space to Let. won't be able to report from here much longer though, I'm being relocated in a few months to cheaper offices out Canary Wharf way. of course this is still relative... maybe its just I have started to notice it more... but i will miss Pizza Express Two thing's I've particularly noticed commuting in London lately: 1. Counted over 40 commercial 'to let' signs for office space and workshops walking down the roughly half mile length of Hatton Garden (London's famous jewellery centre). Similar view down the side streets. 2. there's a couple of hideous purple and green new build apartment blocks visible from the train going through Elephant & Castle overground station. Big sign saying 'to let'. The suspicious thing is that all the flats on the immediate eyeline of anyone looking out of the train window seem to be occupied - curtains up, stuff on balconies, household items on kitchen counters (yes, they are that close to the railway lines!). Look to the lower or upper stories and they all look unoccupied. One block is set back from the one nearer the railway and looks like it's completely empty. There's a certain amount of 'the more you get your eye in, the more you see'; even so, it feels like it's all getting a bit shaky at the moment. TLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaitedSoLong Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 A lot of empty commercial premises appearing now where I work in Camden. Parkway is one of the nicer streets in the area (and home to my favourite local pub, the Spread Eagle) but over the last year around 6 or 7 shops have closed and nothing has replaced them - I would have thought most of them would be pretty prime locations. I'm guessing greedy landlords pushing the lease up a bit too high - probably not a wise idea as retail hits it's worst down-turn in however many years. Oh and every friday night about a dozen (no exaggerration, I actually counted them) Foxtens minis descend on the street, clogging the pubs with unpleasant characters in cheap suits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 I walked past the first shop I've seen in Chester with a 'peaceful re-entry' notice in the window today on the way to the boot sale. It said the landlord had re-entered the property for non-payment of rent and forfeited (cancelled) the lease. It was a gift type collectors shop with newish & antique bears /dolls. Bit sad to see lot of unsold stuff /shelves piled up inside for disposal. No doubt this is one of many to come in these worsening times, particularly those selling non-essentials. Bootsale was rubbish, a lot of the made in China stuff has no resale value IMO. Speaking to others about the economy recently, its funny how they think the uk economic outlook is rosy simply because the stock market has risen. Seems to block out other factors/signs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southsea Bubble Posted July 23, 2006 Share Posted July 23, 2006 I was shocked today to find about 10 units have closed in Cascades shopping centre in Portsmouth today! Go towards the food mall and you'll see lots of shops have closed ! There are signs saying that the units are undergoing refurbishment - hmmm or is it the leases have gone up in amidst this retail downturn!!! Already gone i can remember, Cargo, a kitchen shop, kjc mobile phones, adams, hargreaves etc..... Pretty shocking when you go down there! Vision express look like they have moved accross to a smaller unit. Littlewoods gutted, and gadget shop boarded up A real ghostly area. Anybody else seen this? I ll take a photo on friday. There is a major refurn going on as you'll probably have sussed out since Feb. I used to work for a retailer who closed a store in Cascades entirely unrelated to the refurb. IIRC the landlords were the City Council and the rents were always astronomical in relation to the quality of the centre and the footflow through it. Portsmouth has a real problem as a retail centre and I am not convinced that the new development in place of the Tricorn will solve it. It is coming years too late and the city has fallen far behind the likes of Soton and Brighton. What became Cascades should have been far bigger and should have replaced the Tricorn. Gunwharf is more successful but talking to retailers there again the rents are high and while some do very well, there does seem to be quite a quick turnover ot tenants in many of the units. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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