Shopping parade is fully-let for first time

A shopping parade in Sutton Coldfield is fully-let for the first time in two years after Turkish Golden Scissors barbers signed up for the last retail unit.

Turkish Golden Scissors has agreed a 20-year lease for unit 2, The Lanes Shopping Centre, Wylde Green, with national property and investment company LCP, which manages the centre. The new tenancy for the 1,031 sq ft unit comes just three weeks after The Tanning Shop also signed up for the Birmingham Road centre.

LCP, which acquired the parade for Sheet Anchor Investments Ltd, one of the LCP group of companies, in October 2017, has invested about £35,000 on phase one improvements, which included undertaking repairs to the soffits and fascias, repainting car park bollards, improving the landscaping and redecorating the canopies. It now plans to upgrade the existing lighting in the scheme to LED, consider installation of additional external lighting in the car park and resurface the car park.

Rakesh Joshi, LCP retail asset manager, said it spent 2018 making aesthetic improvements to the centre, helping it to retain a number of existing tenants and has since attracted new occupiers to the site.

Occupiers include Fabrica, a dressmaking and fabrics store which doubled in size after taking an adjoining unit; Fabrica 2, a Malaysian restaurant, which renewed its 15-year lease for a 3,200 sq ft unit; Halo Blinds, which has agreed a new five-year lease for its 762 sq ft unit; and Flex gym, which has agreed a 10-year lease for its 4,500 sq ft unit. Rakesh also welcomed Card Factory to The Lanes, after it signed a five-year lease for a 918 sq ft unit.

“The Lanes is a vibrant local shopping centre that is well-supported by the local community and we are pleased to have helped to attract a greater diversity of tenants here, leading to a richer retail and leisure mix,” he said. “LCP prides itself on acquiring properties that it can add value to for the benefit of its tenants and also the local community and we’ve worked hard to build up a good relationship with the tenants, working with them to prioritise what work should be carried out.”