October 2023
The Marlands Shopping Centre was sold by GCW for £9.3m in a deal achieved ahead of valuation in July, after a successful marketing campaign for the sought-after 3.54-acre site.
A £170m redevelopment potential for the centre has already gone through pre-application planning for over 505 new homes, 200-bed hotel, health centre, gym, new retail and office space and car parking.
Southampton City Council has stated a redevelopment of The Marlands shopping centre, “will maintain and enhance the vibrancy of the northern end of the primary shopping area and there would be better connections from the Above Bar shopping street and Civic Centre Road / Portland Terrace, leading to the Asda superstore, Mayflower Quarter, Central Station and Civic Centre.”
Ben Legard, senior surveyor, GCW, part of the team involved in the deal, said: “Southampton city centre is going through a regeneration, and this is definitely the next piece of the puzzle.”
Legard added “GCW achieved a price ahead of valuation using GCW’s strong market investment knowledge, by providing a development appraisal on the proposed planning, highlighting the present development opportunity, which will add new vibrant mixed uses to the city centre.”
After a competitive bidding process, we were able to conclude a phenomenal result ahead of the quoting price. During an interesting time in the market, this shows there is still demand for well-placed development opportunities.”
Originally opened in September 1991 as The Mall, The Marlands has gone through several facelifts over the years. Like others, the centre faced tough times with retail closures. In 2018 Ellandi, who managed the Tiger assets, decided to repurpose empty units to cater for the then increasing demand for space to satisfy a new co-working initiative.
Working in partnership with Southampton City Council, which invested £1.5m in the project, it turned 12,500 sq ft of vacant units on the second floor of the centre into co-working space called Network Eagle Labs.
Looking to the future, Legard said the ambitions of new owners of The Marlands, are to press on with the planning process: “This will fulfil the requirements of Southampton city centre with a potentially amended planning application. GCW are excited to see the project unfold in due course.”