Delivering on its strategic leasing programme, Festival Place in Basingstoke welcomed four additional operators in January – Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Wenzel’s, and Kushti Comics – while existing occupier Festival Street Kitchen is relocating and re-investing as part of its expansion proposals. With 25 new leases/lease renewals agreed since the beginning of 2022, Festival Place is showcasing continued resilience and relevance as a key retail and leisure destination while continued leasing activity for H2 2022 has resulted in deals with MINISO, Ted Baker, Tapas Revolution and local dessert operator G Factory. In January 2023, revenue saw an increase of +8.2% LFL while the footfall was up +9.1%.
Simon Barrett, managing director and head of asset management at AEW, said: “The arrival of these new operators adds further diversity and services to the scheme and is indicative of the ongoing evolution of Festival Place. Seeing existing operators relocate to new premises is equally encouraging and shows that our tailored strategic approach of retaining operators and attracting exciting new ones, alongside a number of local operators is proving successful.”
Recent leasing activity also includes substantial community initiatives such as a 6,113sq ft NHS Health Hub in a prime location within the centre, and the offering of free space to the Community Food Link, a Basingstoke charity that collects fresh food and delivers it to those in need, to operate a new delivery Hub.
Having launched in October 2002, Festival Place was acquired by AEW in 2015 and is the highest ranked shopping centre outside a major UK city. It is listed in the top 25 of the latest Global Data’s UK shopping centres report and sits within Trevor Wood Associates’ Premier League of shopping centres.
Joint agents for Festival Place are Lunson Mitchenall and Cushman & Wakefield. CBRE is the managing agent for the centre.
