A suburban “mall of the future” that tenants are leaving

Its arrival has changed Swansea’s retail landscape, with many fearing it could be the death knell for the city center and even have a major impact on surrounding towns. The news that Sears Property Developments was behind the 14-acre shopping complex struck fear in the hearts of many retailers.

Complete with huge accessible parking for the convenience of shoppers and plans for modern shops, plans to develop the Fforest Park Estate at Ffordd Cynore, awarded in 1994, were seen as a serious threat to the rest of the area in time. . The Fforest Motel was located there, which the developer bought three years later, paving the way for the construction of the megaproject.

After many years of development it became known as Parc Fforestfach and opened in August 2002. The £15m country development included a huge Tesco Extra as well as Next, Birthdays, Outfit, WH Smith, Argos, JJB . Sports and Pizza Hut among its original lineup, creating over 500 jobs at the time. Unsurprisingly, city center merchants Gorseynon and Llanelli raised concerns that their trade was affected. You can get more Swansea news and other news straight to your inbox by signing up for our newsletters here.

READ MORE: The Huge Hole in Swansea’s Main Street and What’s Happening to It

And that’s because it got off to a great start, attracting 40,000 shoppers a week in its first year, as many customers took advantage of out-of-town shopping.

Alan Jenkins, who was assistant manager of Kwik Save on Alexandra Road, Gorseinon at the time, said there had been a significant drop in business since the mall opened. He said in October 2002: “There is definitely a drop in trade here and there are fewer people on the streets of Gorseinon. It had a huge impact.

“We used to have a lot of passing trade, but the city seems more relaxed because development has pushed people out of the city. We sell many of the products and foods they sell on Fforestfach. People go there to walk around and don’t come back to the city to buy. Other companies feel the same way.

Slowly but surely, however, everything started to change in the retail park. Stores closed one by one over the years, with Tesco Extra being the sole survivor of the original range. Replacements have come and gone, including Marks & Spencer, which later closed its clothing store there in March 2018 after opening in 2004. H&M closed its doors in September 2020 after announcing plans to accelerate the pace of closing stores in 2020 as you shift your focus to your online business. And in June 2020, DW Sports Fitness announced the closure of 25 retail stores due to the Covid-19 pandemic and quarantine. Greggs, Carphone Warehouse and O2 also once had locations in Parc Fforestfach, but all have since closed.

There are currently six vacant units under Nuveen Real Estate, with a seventh soon to come as the retail park loses another store to Homesense, who have announced they are pulling out of Swansea and moving to Llanelli. At the end of March, the home goods store definitively closes its doors in the retail park and moves directly to Parque Comercial Trostre.

The opening of the Llanelli store will coincide with the closing of the Swansea store. TK Maxx will also open at Llanelli as part of the move. You can read more about it by clicking here.

But there is good news on the horizon. The Aldi supermarket chain looks set to open its fifth store in the retail park of the former New Look unit, next to Tesco Extra. The German economy supermarket already has branches in Parc Tawe, Cwmdu, Gorseinon and Llansamlet. In June last year, Swansea City Council granted planning permission to the applicant, known only as the UK Trust Retail Warehouse, to reconfigure Units 12 and 13 to create a much larger base.

Across the road from Parc Fforestfach is the West Swansa Retail Park, formerly known as Pontarddulais Road Retail Park, which has been managed by LaSalle Investment Management since late 2011 and is not immune to struggles in the retail sector either.

While the current lineup of stores includes Bensons for Beds, One Below, Hobby Craft, Pets at Home, Cancer Research UK, Costa and Mountain Warehouse, Marks and Spencer and Dunelm, the units formerly occupied by Currys and Argos are not yet full: let a piece of retail park is empty.

For now, the future of shopping in Swansea, in the form of Fforestfach Park, looks less impressive and inclusive than it once did. Turns out it wasn’t the downtown bell. It certainly had an impact, especially in its heyday, but the city center is not dead.

However, like Parc Fforestfach, the city center is feeling the same impact from the struggle for high street retail and has lost a number of big names in recent years, including Debenhams, Top Shop and Next (which continues to shop from Morfa Retail Park ). ).

It’s still teeming with shops and new developments such as Swansea Arena in and around are promising new faces on that front. But four empty flats next to each other on Oxford Street in the city center show there is still a lot of work to be done. You can read more about the new investment in the city center here.

The Parc Fforestfach site still lays claim to the title of Swansea’s premier outdoor retail centre, but it is now almost half empty and the appeal it once offered has been eclipsed by similar developments that have emerged subsequently such as Morfa Retail Park and Trostre. the latter also faced an uphill battle to retain his crown.

But there is hope for Parc Fforestfach if Parc Tawe, Swansea’s other commercial park, serves as a benchmark. Since taking office, Centurion Tave has shown that things can change. It sat half-empty for years under previous owner Hammerson, but since the takeover it has returned to full capacity, attracting big names like Ninja Warrior UK, Aldi and Flashpoint. You can read more about it by clicking here. Time will tell if a similar revival can take place at Fforestfach.

WalesOnline has reached out to the owners of Parc Fforestfach and West Swansea Retail Park for comment.

Source: Wales Online