Stockport Council is marking 6 months since becoming the owners of Stockport’s Merseyway Shopping Centre.
From day one, a priority for the Council has been making sure Stockport town centre has a shopping centre of which it can be proud. Key to this is ensuring a wide range and mix of shops are open for visitors to come and enjoy.
Since April, a lot of hard work has gone into making this happen and a number of new lettings and lease renewals have been completed seeing stores that had been sitting empty reopen, bringing Stockport’s Merseyway void rate down to just 6.5%.
A number of new stores have opened in Merseyway for the first time, including quality menswear retailer DCM Menswear; Forever Love offering a wide range of home fragrances and seasonal occupiers such as Calendar Club. In addition, many tenants such as New Look, Next, Ann Summers and Roman Originals have signed new leases committing their future to the centre.
This news comes as at a time when Stockport has been highlighted as one of only five North West town centres enjoying growth in retail numbers over the past six months.
This is all a great start to our ownership but there is much more to come. Work with retailers looking to open new stores in Stockport is continuing, and the Council is also developing exciting plans to make a significant investment into Merseyway over the coming years. This combined with the new openings and investment in the Market Place and Underbanks, and the development of Redrock Stockport with a cinema and national brand restaurants will make the town centre a fantastic place for everyone to spend time in.
Councillor Kate Butler, Executive Member for Economy & Regeneration at Stockport Council said: “A huge amount has been achieved over the last six months, and it’s great to be able to welcome so many new businesses to Merseyway, but this is just the start.
“Investments are being made across Stockport at the moment and our town centre is changing, becoming stronger than before. Merseyway plays a key role in this. The opportunities open to us at the shopping centre are significant and we’re committed to ensuring that it, as well as the rest of the town centre, thrives and has a successful future.”
Merseyway Shopping Centre is being managed on behalf of the Council by CBRE. CBRE and Barker Proudlove are acting as joint agents for Merseyway.