intu the leading owner, developer and manager of prime regional shopping centres is celebrating intu Eldon Square’s achievement of a highly coveted BCSC Gold Award in recognition of its £22 million mall refurbishment.The shopping centre was nominated in the Refurbishment and/or Extension (over £5m) award at the awards ceremony held at the prestigious Grosvenor House hotel in London last week.
Phil Steele, general manager of intu Eldon Square, said:
“Everyone at intu Eldon Square is absolutely delighted with this accolade. The Gold Awards are the leading awards recognising achievement within the retail property industry. The Gold’s benchmark the industry’s continuing commitment to the improvement in quality of the build environment and celebrate the most creative and innovative, showcasing work over the past year and bringing together retail industry elite.
“The intu Eldon Square mall refurbishment delivered a timeless design to create a modern, bright and premium quality environment in what was once a dated part of the centre. The investment successfully transformed the look and feel of the mall to help maintain the centre’s proposition as the prime retail destination in the city of Newcastle.”
Kate Grant, regional director of intu, commented:
“We create destinations where retailers can flourish and where our customers want to visit, time and time again. This transformation has not only created opportunities for an array of new retailers but also ensured that existing businesses continue to see value in investing in this evolving centre that continues to attract 35 million customer visits every year.”
The opportunity for nineteen new stores (plus refits) includes eight new stores on Eldon Way and key new tenants such as KIKO, Smiggle, Thomas Sabo and Skechers. The new deals have resulted in a new rental income in excess of £3.3 million per annum. Customers have also positively responded to the changes with significantly increased customer satisfaction ratings growing from 50 to 76 from December 2014 to July 2015, via intu’s live customer feedback channel, Tell intu.
Kate Grant added:
“Through this refurbishment we’ve been able to surprise and delight our customers with a place that creates a sense of belonging and desire to visit through ambience, exciting new brands and the commitment we’ve demonstrated to the local community to enhance the centre.
“Keeping our customers happy drives the success of the businesses within the centre and that’s the intu difference and the reason behind our extensive development pipeline across the UK.”
