Retail & Leisure Development Conference

Milligan – Stuart Harris, Chief Executive Officer

After a turbulent couple of years, the high streets are slowly coming back to life, through development of homes, spaces to work and becoming the hub of competitive socialisation.  Developers such as Milligan are innovators in city revitalisation, creating inclusive placemaking and heading the development of over 10 new city centre developments. They have recently announced £750 million, 20-year Swansea regeneration project – redeveloping housing, hospitality and civic spaces. Stuart Harris – Chief Executive officer will be joining us to provide perspective on revitalizing our city centres, challenges of the high street and the evolution of retail spaces.

UKactive – Marianne Boyle, Head of Partnerships & Strategic Lead Infrastructure

UKactive is the leading representative body for the physical activity sector, with more than 3,500 members from across the public, private and third sectors it facilitates partnership and galvanises stakeholders to deliver projects that support the physical activity agenda. The organisation sits on the government’s high street taskforce and is working alongside developers and local authorities to ensure that active leisure offerings are included in the UK’s post pandemic high streets so they remain relevant and viable. Marianne will discuss this exciting work, and why it is important that lessons learnt during the last 12 months are used to galvanise the high street and reduced it’s reliance on traditional retail.

Tellon Capital – James Burchell, Co-Founder and Partner

Tellon Capital are bringing forward one of the most significant schemes in Southampton which will see 519 flats and townhouses, plus 2,515sqm of commercial space, developed on a historical site near the centre of the city. James will be on hand to give more details about this complex scheme, and speak about Tellon’s commitment to making this significant rejuvenation a reality.

Scotch Corner Designer Village – Sarah Hodkinson, Retail Director

Scotch Corner Designer Village is a planned £90 million, 250,000 sq ft outlet shopping and leisure destination, with 92 units in the first phase including 10 restaurants and cafes and is expected to become a top six retail outlet by expected visitor spend. The development will attract a large number of visitors to the area and drive economic growth in North Yorkshire, providing over 1,000 permanent jobs. The team behind the project have worked hard to build it’s green credentials, and are working towards carbon neutrality. With work expected to start in September and a completion date of spring 2023, Sarah will share the vision behind this exciting project.

PureGym – Neil Ferguson, Property Director

PureGym is the UKs leading gym chain and operates over 260 sites serving 1.1 million members across the UK. Last year they acquired Fitness World Group, a leading European gym and fitness provider, and the combined business now has over 500 sites and 1.7 million members. They operate both big box gyms and smaller units on high streets and in retail facilities and have plans for significant further expansion, with the long term aim of doubling their number of UK gyms. Neil will discuss how gyms can lead the way in drawing customers back to retail venues, and how including a mixed use offering including gyms and other leisure facilities is vital to ensuring the long term viability of our high streets, shopping centres and retail parks.

UK Hospitality – Kate Nicholls, Chief Executive Officer

After the economic downturn of the Hotels & Hospitality, the sector is predicted to grossing over £16.5 billion by 2025 with a 42% increase in new infrastructure.  Hospitality is redeveloping, focusing on sustainability, technology and health, while dealing with the impact of Brexit and Covid-19. Kate will be joining us to give us insight into how the hospitality sector is rebuilding, current challenges, intel on future developments and the strategies to develop working environment that supports the health and wellbeing.

Blackpool Airport – Nick Gerrard, Growth and Prosperity Director

One of the architects of Blackpool’s £1bn renaissance masterplan, Nick will unveil the intricate details behind the council’s sizeable investment and development ambitions which include all of the excellent work being scoped out at the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone as well as upgrades and maintenance to essential infrastructure, with further significant investment planned.

AEW – Rachel McIsaac, Managing Director

AEW are one of Bristol’s key property stakeholders and own a number of retail and office sites across the city. They have made several acquisitions in the city over the last 18 months, including the vacant former Debenhams site in the city centre. Plans for the site are in the early stages but Mayor Marvin Rees discussed the possibility for a major mixed use redevelopment in his New Year’s address. Rachel will be on hand to discuss AEW’s long term ambitions in the city.

Network Rail Property – Robin Dobson, Group Property Director

Network Rail Property have ambitions to deliver 20 projects on the scale of York Central across the UK and Newcastle is one of their priority regeneration locations. With land owned around the station and big ambitions to develop it, Robin joins the event to go into more detail.

CallisonRTKL – Lydia Firminger, Associate Principal

CallisonRTKL (CRTKL), a global architecture, planning and design practice, began over seven decades ago and has evolved into a cultural agency to advance positive outcomes in our local and global communities. Through a human-centric design approach our team addresses the imperatives of resiliency, wellbeing and technology and their influence in the built environment.

With over 17 years of expertise in the design and delivery of prestigious residential and mixed-use projects in central London, Europe, and South Africa, Lydia brings a particular focus on large scale masterplans that create vibrant destinations.

Lydia has a particular specialism in the repositioning of internationally renowned destinations. Her work with Capco on the repurposing of historic underutilised buildings across Covent Garden is particularly relevant now and aligns with the rise of the ‘repurpose and reuse’ of commercial and retail assets to meet the demands of the new post-pandemic landscape.

Godwin Developments – Stuart Pratt, Group Development Director

With a proven track record of delivering major developments in partnership with Lidl, McDonalds, Subway and Burger King, Stuart is an expert in the realm of retail schemes. He joins this session to share his take on how the sector has to adapt as challenges to the high street and post-pandemic life takes hold and to explore what might be next for Godwin in regards to projects.

JLL – Tamsin Cottle, Director, Planning

Tamsin is a Director with over 20 years’ experience in advising public and private sector clients on planning issues. She has a range of public and private sector clients including developers, local authorities’, institutions and the MoD and ESFA.

In Tamsin’s’ previous role she acted as a retail consultant for many local authorities, undertaking a number of Retail Studies, and advising them on submitted retail proposals. Tamsin therefore has a good relationship with many officers and local authorities.

NewRiver – Justin Thomas, Director of Development

NewRiver REIT is a leading Real Estate Investment Trust specialising in buying, managing and developing essential retail and leisure assets throughout the UK. Their £1.1 billion portfolio covers 9 million sq ft and comprises 33 community shopping centres, 24 conveniently located retail parks and around 700 community pubs. Justin will discuss their 2.6 million sq ft development pipeline and how they remain committed to their retail and mixed use model.