During the recession, a wave of administrations in the retail industry led to widespread store closures and contributed significantly towards high vacancy rates across the country. However, with business confidence now on the rise and a large number of retailers looking to expand, units on retail parks have become much desired assets once more.
Bescot Retail Park is adjacent to Walsall Football Club’s Bescot Stadium
This week, it was announced that members-only retail club JTF hopes to take up several empty units on the Bescot Retail Park in Walsall, marking JTF’s first foray into the Black Country market. Should planning approval be granted by Walsall Council, the adjoining units will be combined in order to create a single store with a total floor space of more than 44,000 square feet.
Bescot Retail Park, adjacent to Walsall Football Club’s Bescot Stadium, suffered during the recession, with stores such as JJB Sports and Toymaster vacating their units after entering administration.
Although popular chains such as McDonald’s, Farmfoods and Matalan remain key tenants of the park, the relatively high vacancy rate has caused consumers to choose alternative nearby shopping options – something which JTF property manager Rob Amans hopes will change should the firm’s planning application be approved.
In the application letter, he said; “JTF is a successful operation servicing the needs of its customers – we consider that customers in Walsall would benefit from our operation.
“The community would also benefit from the 60 or so jobs that we could create from a store at Bescot and we are sure there would be other knock on economic benefits for Walsall from the proposed investment.
“Bescot is well suited to our property needs to serve the Walsall area and we hope that we will be granted permission to open.”
JTF primarily specialises in selling large, multi-pack items at discounted rates to its members, with items on sale including electrical products, food and drink and toys.
At present, only 12 branded stores operate in the UK, the majority of which are located in the north of the UK. Only two stores have so far been opened in the Midlands, located in Tamworth and Kidderminster.
A spokesman for the project said; “This application is about securing fresh investment and new jobs for the retail park and for Walsall.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the council and engaging with the local community to take the application forward.”
Should the application be granted, a decision which is expected to take several months, the retail park is sure to benefit from a lower vacancy rate. However, with consumers increasingly turning back to the high street rather than visiting out of town retail parks, the venture could prove to be something of a gamble for JTF.
Do you take advantage of bulk buying in order to simplify your budget, or do you prefer to shop little and often?
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Walsall planning have a lot to answer for with their policy refusual on this site. They are responsible for the neglected state of the business park.
What are the local councilors thinking of here. We need this developement