Shopping centres aim to work together to raise city’s profile

In Barbara Winston’s office hangs a painting of The Ridings centre circa 1983.

Featuring the innovative food court and stylish glass lift, the picture shows the shopping centre in its heyday when it was at the cutting edge of retail.

In recent years, Wakefield has faded as a retail destination but Trinity Walk, a new 500,000 sq ft centre plans to put the city back on the map when it opens in the spring.

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The development has attracted new stores to the city including Debenhams, H&M and Next while other retailers, including Topshop, River Island and Bank, are moving to the new scheme from The Ridings.

There has been much speculation about what will happen to The Ridings once the new shopping centre opens and in October 2009 its landlord, Moorfield Group, declared the scale of the scheme would be a “disaster”.

But Mrs Winston, The Ridings centre manager, insists Trinity Walk will complement rather than compete with her 350,000 sq ft shopping centre.

The two centre managers have met and plan to work together to promote Wakefield on a united front. “I think we need to complement each other,” she said.

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It is hoped that the new retail names for Trinity Walk will bring to Wakefield the higher earners who often travel to Leeds and the White Rose Centre for their shopping.

The Ridings has weathered the economic downturn better than some shopping centres, remaining fully let, but that could change.

Although there is interest from new stores, including a major retailer, keen to move into shops which are being vacated by those moving over to Trinity Walk, it can’t sign new deals at the moment as there is no definite moving date for the existing retailers.

Last year, 13m people visited The Ridings and the footfall for January was 941,000 – five per cent above last year’s figure.

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In December it attracted 1.2m customers and on Boxing Day there were so many shoppers that the centre ran out of money at three cash points.

Mrs Winston, who has been centre manager for three years, expects footfall to drop this year but believes the arrival of the new centre will also create opportunities for The Ridings to reconfigure its stores and attract new names.

“We know this year is not going to be marvellous but having said that, the arrival of Trinity Walk means Wakefield will be getting retailers into the city that it’s never had before,” she said.

“You have to be realistic. We are losing tenants to Trinity and that has been known for some time. We’ve been able to prepare part of the way towards that. There will be a drop in footfall but we’ve got a very loyal customer base here.”

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Moorfield tried to take over Trinity Walk when the project stalled after a funding crisis. It wanted to see a much smaller supermarket-led project.

“At the time there were so many plans out about Trinity and I think any landlord who didn’t turn round and say ‘hang on a minute, you might hurt me’ would have been negligent,” she said. “I don’t think anybody had any issue with the development as long as it complemented what else was here and broadened the offer.”

So was the fact that Moorfield didn’t take over the project a good or a bad thing for The Ridings? “I can’t say, and that’s the truth, because I don’t know what will happen,” she said. “Everybody’s optimistic but until it opens we don’t know.”

The Ridings is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan See you at The Ridings. “It’s been a major meeting place for 28 years and we want to make sure that continues,” said Mrs Winston.

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Two years ago Moorfield spent £2.5m on refurbishing and improving the centre which has 100 shops on three floors.

Work is constantly ongoing to update the building and Moorfield is currently spending £600,000 on replacing the 28-year-old escalators.

Meanwhile, other retailers have given a vote of confidence to The Ridings by renewing their leases. Holland & Barrett will remain in its store after signing a 10-year deal and Clarks has signed a new five-year lease.

The latest tenant to sign up to Trinity Walk is the 350-seat Chinese Buffet, which is moving into the largest space in the scheme’s food area.

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It has taken the entire first floor – 9,000 sq ft – of the main restaurant area overlooking Market Walk, which links directly to the city’s main shopping streets from Teall Street.