St John’s overhaul remains on track

Jul 17 2008 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

LAND Securities says its planned £100m overhaul of the St John’s shopping centre in Liverpool remains on track despite admitting yesterday the project was not yet part of its “formal development pipeline”.

The company last month secured planning permission to remodel the entire centre and increase the floorspace by almost a quarter.

Work is due to start in 2009 with an anticipated finish by 2013. In a trading statement yesterday the company said: “This project does not yet form part of our formal development pipeline, but can be delivered from 2013.”

However, a spokeswoman told the Daily Post that the group was still looking to start work on the upgrade of St John’s next year.

She added: “We are always doing a huge amount of planning for major schemes like this. We are in good shape despite what is happening in the market and we are already focused on our plans for the long term.”

Land Securities is suffering, along with the rest of the commercial property sector, from the effects of the credit crunch and the slowdown in the UK economy.

St John’s was built in 1969 and was last refurbished 19 years ago but has begun to look tatty.

With the opening of the huge Liverpool One development this year Land Securities felt the centre needed to be brought into the 21st century if it was to compete. The transformation would see new double-height retail malls, glass fronts to many shops looking on to the street, and roof spaces allowing more light and an expansion on to Houghton Street, Elliot Street and Roe Street.

Yesterday Land Securities, which also owns Liverpool’s Clayton Square shopping centre, said the stricken quoted property sector faces up to a year more of market turbulence as it waits to see how occupiers grapple with poorer economic conditions.

Its statement provided little hope of an end to this year’s brutal property share sell-off in its first quarter trading update as it said progress on asset sales and lettings had slowed amid challenging market conditions.

The group also said it was continuing to make progress on internal preparations for its planned demerger into three separate UK retail property, office and property outsourcing companies.

It added: “We have no timetable to follow but our own. We are prepared to be patient.”

tonymdonough