Merseyway Shopping Centre

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Merseyway Shopping Centre

Location	Stockport
Coordinates	53°24′40″N 2°09′33″W / 53.41111, -2.15917
Address	The Management Suite, 52-54 Great Underbank, Stockport, SK1 1PD^[1]
Opening date	1965^[2]
Developer	Hammerson^[3]
Management	DTZ (Formerly Donaldsons LLP)
Owner	Stockport Holdings Ltd^[1]
No. of stores and services	95^[4]
No. of anchor tenants	3
Total retail floor area	32,050 sq mtrs (344,983 sq ft)^[5]
Parking	835 Spaces^[6]
No. of floors	2
Website	Official Website

Merseyway Shopping Centre is a large Shopping Centre in Stockport, England, forming the basis of the town's shopping area, it was opened in 1965 and extensively refurbished in 1995.^[2]^[5] It consists mainly of a large pedestrianised street, where at one point there are two levels of walkways for shoppers, and there is access to both the first and ground floor of many shops. There is a small area of covered mall at the western edge of the centre, constructed in 1995 housing retailers such as Waterstones^[7] and Sports Direct. The developer was Hammerson and they owned the centre until 2003 when they sold the leasehold to a private property company (Stockport Holdings Ltd) for the Jersey-based Halabi family trust.^[3] It hosts around 95 retailers. Shops located within the centre include Debenhams and Marks & Spencer.^[8]^[9] More retail property surrounds the south and east of the centre including The Peel Centre and the towns' historic Market.^[10] It is open 9:00am - 5:30pm Monday to Saturday and 10:00am - 4:00pm on Sunday, however some outlets opening hours may vary.^[4] Unlike other shopping destinations in Greater Manchester, such as the Trafford Centre, which are often open till late (8pm or 10pm) on a weekday. However in the run up to Christmas the centre opens till 8pm on a Wednesday evening.

The centre and Stockport's shopping area attract about 14 million visitors per year, making it a popular shopping destination in the Greater Manchester Urban Area. Its catchment covers much of the affluent areas of North Cheshire and South Manchester, competing with other major retail destinations in the area such as Manchester City Centre, Ashton-under-Lyne and the Trafford Centre.^[2] The centre also hosts numerous events throughout the year, with a particular focus around Christmas to attract shoppers, every year the centre welcomes Santa and his reindeer and shoppers can watch the reindeer being fed with entertainment from Santa and music from various organisations.^[11]

The centre's name Merseyway comes from the fact that the centre is built on giant stilts above the River Mersey and the river runs for the entire length of the centre.^[12] In 2001 there were plans to fit glass panels to the pavements within the centre to reveal the River Mersey underneath, this was a plan to try and boost tourism in the town as the river is entirely covered and hidden while it runs under the centre.^[13] However there has been no development of these plans.

1 History
2 Retailers
3 Transport links
4 Future development
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

The centre was opened in 1965, as one of the first shopping precincts in the United Kingdom, since then it has undergone considerable development.

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[edit] Retailers

There are around 95 tenants altogether in the centre, consisting of around 4 large department-type stores, which act as the principal anchors, alongside many more smaller stores containing generally specialist retailers. There are few independent traders in the centre as it contains the majority of national Chain Stores in Stockport town centre, there are independent traders located on the shopping streets immediately surrounding the Merseyway, such as Princes Street, The Underbanks and The Market Place.^[10] The more notable stores in the centre include; Westgate Department Stores,^[9] Debenhams, Woolworths, Marks & Spencer, Boots and HMV.^[8]

The Westgate Department Store started off known as The Chestergate Department store^[specify], likely to be named after the street it was located on, it has always been under Co-operative ownership, being owned by various societies. It was rebranded as a Sunwin Department Store in the 1990s by then owners United Co-operatives, however in 2004/5 the society decided to sell their Sunwin Department Store business to Anglia Regional Co-operative Society, and the Stockport store is now a Westgate Department Store^[specify].

To the immediate East of the centre are two of the town's main supermarkets, Sainsbury's^[14] and ASDA, both having sizeable stores which is unusual for a town centre, a large Tesco Extra store is also located close by, on the opposite side of the M60 motorway. Retail Developments competing for similar tenants have sprung up around the centre since it was opened in 1965, these include The Peel Centre, The Courts Shopping Centre and the planned Bridgefield development. Additionally some of the more traditional shopping streets such as Hillgate play host to independent retailers due to lower rents, as well as a small collection of national chain stores.

[edit] Transport links

The centre is easily accessible by car, from junctions 26, 27 or 1 of the M60 motorway, via the A6 from Manchester or Buxton.^[15] There is extensive parking at the centre with a multi-storey carpark spread over a large area, containing 835 spaces and 31 disabled spaces. Additionally there is much more parking surrounding the centre.^[6] The town's bus station is located directly opposite the western edge of the centre.^[16]

[edit] Future development

The area to the north of the centre is set to be developed over the next few years into another shopping centre, planned to contain more larger retail units to try and attract some of the larger stores back into Stockport compared to the on average smaller units currently offered in the town centre by the Merseyway, this development is to be called Bridgefield. The developer is Australian Company Lend Lease. When completed it is expected that this development will directly compete with the Merseyway for similar types of tenants. It has the backing of the council as it is a major part of the town centre masterplan; 'Future Stockport'.^[17] ^[18] In 2004 the local council announced that they were drawing up plans to redevelop the centre in conjunction with the owner Stockport Holdings Ltd^[19]

In April 2007 Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council announced plans for a £2.25million refurbishment of the centre's car park, involving a major cosmetic improvement and a possible increase in the amount of spaces.^[20]