Hull's Princes Quay to unveil pioneering off-price development next week

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 14, 2017

A pioneering retail development will be unveiled in Hull next week when the £20m Princes Quay scheme is unveiled. Anchored by a Next Outlet store, it will be the first time a city-centre UK mall has combined full-price and off-price stores in the same centre.

The developers have also created a new urban waterfront concept in a 300,000 sq ft space that includes dining and entertainment.

In addition to Next, the new ‘outlet deck’ will also host stores for Bags Etc, Cotton Traders, Julian Charles, Skopes, Suits Direct, Graham and Brown, Ben Sherman, Sole Trader, Hallmark and Bench.

Like many UK shopping centres, Princes Quay had suffered from falling visitor traffic in recent years, although footfall has risen 20% in the past year due to Hull’s status as Britain’s city of culture of 2017. The new spend is seen as a key lifeline for the mall once that interest dies down.

The company has done all it can to ensure as many of the new stores as possible open on June 22 with eight of them reported to be ready, in addition to Next. The rest are set to open soon with the shopping centre manager saying 80% of the retail units have been let and 100% should be let by year-end as a number of contracts with major names are on the verge of being signed.

The outlet deck is seen as being a major draw to get people out from behind their screens and into physical stores with Next promising discounts up to 75% for the opening. The Next store will employ 40 people with another 110 jobs having been created at other stores in the new development.

The shopping centre is continuing to upgrade its look and facilities with plans to renovate other parts of the mall.