Manchester Arndale reaches 95% occupancy
New arrivals Creams Café and Betfred, as well as a Pandora expansion, have taken the shopping centre to nearly fully let.
Add to the mix a mysterious flagship restaurant, which Manchester Arndale officials have teased as coming from a “leading multinational F&B brand”. This unnamed vendor has signed a 15-year lease for 3,700 sq ft and is set to open early next year.
The newest Arndale restaurant is dessert specialist Creams Café, which sells sundaes, shakes, crepes, waffles. Creams Café operates more than 100 locations throughout the UK, including a restaurant in Cheetham Hill.
Creams Café’s 2,325 sq ft space at the Manchester Arndale will offer dine-in, takeaway and delivery services. Creams Café signed a 15-year lease for the space.
“We’re thrilled to be opening in the iconic Manchester Arndale and we’re confident that Creams Cafe will be a very welcomed addition to the shopping mall’s already impressive line-up of food and beverage outlets,” said Othman Shoukat, managing director for Creams Café.
Meanwhile, Bookmaker Betfred has taken on a 10-year lease for 1,346 sq ft at the shopping centre.
Jeweller Pandora has signed a 10-year lease for the unit adjacent to its current space, growing its presence at the Arndale by 1,600 sq ft.
- Read more: Inside Manchester Arndale’s Urban Playground
Arndale letting agents Metis Real Estate and Time Retail Partners have also secured five-year lease renewals from Pizza Hut, Café Nero and Dr Martins.
Colin Flinn, spokesperson for Manchester Arndale, said the lease renewals highlight the brands’ “commitment to – and faith in – the long-term performance of Manchester Arndale, recognising its place as a leading destination which continues to attract millions of visitors from across the North West and beyond”.
Flinn continued: “Experiential retail is becoming increasingly important for centres like Manchester Arndale and having a strong F&B offering helps to encourage shoppers to visit in-store as opposed to shopping online. We hope to announce further new lettings and leasing activity across the centre as we seek to maintain Manchester Arndale’s position as a premier retail and leisure destination in the UK.”
Hear the latest analysis of the retail market in the North West at Place North West’s Future of Retail event in September.
They need to invest and update the interior of arndale, it’s big but some parts of it looks very dull and old. Bring it Westfield London standards
By Saeed
It used to be only the down and out shopping centres that relied on betting shops to fill empty units but it seems they cannot attract any more desirable brands anymore.
By Anonymous
All the really posh shops , Burburry, Louis Vuitton, Paul Smith etc have there own St next to Sefridges. Too close to the Arndale. They are never going to move inside. The Arndale has its market and it’s definitely not the posh brands.
By Anonymous
Good to see Betfred expanding in Manchester, showa there’s still plenty of money around the city despite all the doom and gloom
By Cal
They have in recent years lost numerous brands like Topshop and Burtons and Fossil and Gstar and Claus Olsson and have failed to replace them with equivalent brands so continue the march down-market to betting shops.
By Anonymous
The whole thing really drags Manchester City centre down. It’s time someone grasped the nettle and demolished it and startedagain. It honestly depresses me, having to walk in and around the place, also it can’t be good for the vitality of the retail and leisure offer of the city centre as it blocks off so many streets. It’s really quite a toxic building if you think about it.
By Anonymous
The Arndale desperately needs a renovation done. Walking through it is embarrassing. The interior needs to be urgently updated throughout and make people want to go and shop there. It needs to look nice so that many brands want to have there shop there. The state of it at the moment cannot be ignored and someone needs to step in.
By Anonymous
I think this type of format is out of date with online shopping. Still have shops etc but demolish the whole centre, just a street grid pattern. Then have blocks like what renaker are doing in greengate with podium blocks with leisure retail etc and residential/ commercial and hotels above. With a park in middle and basement parking. This be so much better here.
By DG
The Arndale Centre in Manchester is a large second rate shopping mall …it’s days of being a premier shopping destination have well and truly gone, if they ever existed at all ?
Liverpool, Bristol and Cardiff all smaller cities than Manchester have built large attractive family friendly shopping malls that are modern and airy and stay open late into the evenings.
Sadly the Arndale Centre, Market Street and Piccadilly gardens are all holding Manchester back from becoming a truly friendly modern city to compete on the European stage.
By Drew Steele