The owners of Cumbria’s largest shopping centre are considering proposals for a major extension which, they hope, will elevate spending and tourism income in England’s northernmost county.
If the plans go-ahead, The Lanes in Carlisle will be extended eastwards onto a site currently used as a car park for the city’s shopping precinct on Lowther Street. Along with providing an additional 22 retail units including a new large anchor store, the extension would house a multiplex cinema and four food outlets, as well as 150 additional car parking spaces.
F&C REIT acquired the leasehold for The Lanes in 2012 and has since been working on a plan to make the centre a major competitor in the North’s retail industry.
Commercial director of The Lanes, David Jackson, believes that an extension of the existing centre would be more profitable for Carlisle than the city council’s alternative plan which would see a new retailing outlet established on the Civic Centre site.
He says; “It [the extension] provides the opportunity to deliver a more cohesive and comprehensive redevelopment, which accords with the existing character of The Lanes and this area of the city centre.
“The proposals do not rely on the future release of land and are not contingent on the identification of alternate premises being found for the city council operations that are currently in place at the Civic Centre.
“Also, in terms of the topography of the city, the Lowther Street site is on the same level as the current retail core and not down an increasingly steep slope that may discourage shoppers from shopping the whole city.”
Of course, both the city council and F&C’s plans come with their downsides – the extension, for example, would see Lowther Street closed as a through route which could cause traffic congestion in the city centre.
However, the city council’s plan would quite possibly cause further disruption as, along with the need to find alternative premises for current tenants, the demolition of the Civic Centre would take quite some time and the ensuing construction phase would push the completion date yet further back.
According to an independent study, Carlisle will require an additional 200,000 sq ft of non-food retail space between 2015 and 2030 in order to remain competitive within the retail industry.
It seems that, in order to achieve this, the council must decide which plan is firstly most viable in the short term, but secondly which will allow for further retail investment further down the line.
