Leicester’s Haymarket Shopping Centre has reported a £1 million profit, a year after it was bought by Leicester City Council for almost £10 million.
Back in November 2021 the council said it had taken the opportunity to add the city’s second biggest shopping mall – after the much bigger Highcross – to its property portfolio before the site went to market.
It bought the 1970s shopping centre from money set aside for capital investment within the council’s overall capital programme.
Before buying the property, the council was a major tenant of the previous owners, contributing 19 percent of revenues. It paid rent for the Haymarket car park, Haymarket Theatre, Haymarket House – which is sub-let to a Travelodge hotel – and the Haymarket Health sexual health clinic.
In the spring of 2020 the theatre announced that it would not be reopening when the first lockdown lifted.
According to LeicestershireLIve the shopping centre had changed hands for £77.5 million in 2004.
Current tenants include Millets, Heron Foods, Ann Summers, Matalan, Primark and TK Maxx.
Speaking at a recent council meeting, Matthew Wallace, the council’s director of estates and buildings, said there were no firm plans for regenerating the building, but suggested a ‘facelift’ could be on the cards.
More shops are also looking likely for the centre as seven new businesses are in the process of signing leases with the council. Occupancy levels are up from 79 per cent to 81 per cent, and could hit 88 per cent if the leases go through.
Footfall is also back to pre-pandemic levels with 5.7 million visiting in 2022, the city council has said, though it is still some way off a recent high of nine million.
However the council did warn that running costs hit almost £1.5 million last year, and energy costs had also gone up along with staff wages.
The council is considering moving from contracted to in-house cleaning and security staff in a bid to cut costs.
Mr Wallace said: “We need to build our own confidence around owning and operating a shopping centre.”
