Dolphin Centre is sold - but will £6.5m facelift still go ahead? (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Dolphin Centre is sold - but will £6.5m facelift still go ahead?
4:53pm Tuesday 12th February 2013 in News By Jim Durkin
Dolphin Centre is sold - but will £6.5m facelift still go ahead?
POOLE’S Dolphin Shopping Centre has been sold for £57.7million, it has been announced.
New owners Legal & General Property (LGP) bought the centre on behalf of its Managed Fund from Dutch firm Wereldhave.
The purchase throws into doubt a planned £6.5m facelift, that was due to start in stages this year and involved a complete overhaul of Kingland Crescent and Falkland Square.
Mark Russell of LGP’s Managed Fund said: “The Dolphin Centre offers a resilient income return, supported by a diverse tenant base and affordable rents.
“There exists a number of options to increase dwell time and enhance tenant mix, with numerous retailers not currently represented in the town.”
Wereldhave bought the centre at the end of 2010, before going on to purchase a significant slice of Falkland Square the following year.
The Dutch property company had been planning an ambitious rejuvenation scheme for in-and-around the shopping centre. At this stage it is unclear if the new owners will continue in this direction.
Wereldhave UK managing director John Laker said: “The sale of the Dolphin Centre, Poole, is in-line with our plans to consolidate our place as a leading shopping centre investor in Europe and we look forward to exploring new opportunities.”
The shopping centre includes 430,000sq ft of covered retail space, arranged over three floors. Big name retailers include Marks & Spencer, Primark, Boots, BHS and Beales.
According to figures the centre has an annual footfall in excess of 11 million people.
Mr Russell explained: “The quality of income currently enjoyed by the fund affords an opportunity to move up the risk curve on a selective basis where we feel that value exists for secondary assets which are capable of being repositioned.”
Comments(27)
djkent
says...
5:23pm Tue 12 Feb 13
sunglasses ron
says...
6:20pm Tue 12 Feb 13
Clear as mud
phonehome
says...
6:53pm Tue 12 Feb 13
Peferably mine!
ashleycross
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8:03pm Tue 12 Feb 13
MMM444
says...
8:21pm Tue 12 Feb 13
bbird
says...
8:34pm Tue 12 Feb 13
djkent wrote:Just what I was going to say. Currently have to go to Southampton or London for (non basic) shopping.
knock it down 1970s buildings at there worst why not build a john lewis and west quay for poole not tart up an old crumpling building with plastic
Could be a great site for a Westfield type mall, and then improve the rest of the High Street and harbour area.
Hardy Lass
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9:21pm Tue 12 Feb 13
awsokend
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10:04pm Tue 12 Feb 13
UNLESS YOU KNOW DIFFERENT
Yankee1
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10:47pm Tue 12 Feb 13
As a shoppng centre, it is gloriously dated without the patina of age.
Poole Centre is an interesting place midday. You see people that could easily pass for the locals in Les Mis. They really could. I could see Matt Lucas' Thernadier enjoying the fruits of Poole.
I could never imagine the denisons of Sandbanks shopping there. Nor the good folk of Branksome.
They go (if they must) to Castlepoint - or London.
Yankee1
says...
10:50pm Tue 12 Feb 13
To quote Sarah Palin (who seems to have missed her role as a royal bride - she is like so many other),
'You can put lipstick on a pig....but it is still a pig.'
l'anglais
says...
6:39am Wed 13 Feb 13
The train station and shopping centre should have been built under the same roof, at the end of the High Street, behind The Quay.
With a little foresight, How many houses and retirement homes could have been built between The George roundabout and the end of the High Street?
uvox44
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9:03am Wed 13 Feb 13
Baywolf
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9:23am Wed 13 Feb 13
ashleycross wrote:Totally agree and with National Express coach station ..joke..just a car park with a bus shelter..how's that for a welcome to Poole!
As the gateway to Poole at the centre via public transport, ie buses is dark (half the lights are kept permanently turned off), unsafe with no security staff on duty night or day, a free for all for smoking dropping litter and drinking alcohol, covered in chewing gum and in desperate need of a lot of soap and water, it is no wonder the owners worked out that Poole Council is determined to keep it that way with a cattle truck mentality to us bus users and there is no chance of improving the quality or quantity of people using this centre. Even the footway to the train station is shared with bicycles. The area on the way to the train station also has no signage identifying which road you are on which makes reporting crimes to the police and littering, flooding, broken bus shelters, broken street lighting etc to the council very difficult as you can't tell anyone where you are.
woby_tide
says...
10:05am Wed 13 Feb 13
sunglasses ron wrote:I believe "repositioning" a shopping centre generally involves it having accommodation added otherwise it's still a shopping centre.
“The quality of income currently enjoyed by the fund affords an opportunity to move up the risk curve on a selective basis where we feel that value exists for secondary assets which are capable of being repositioned.”
Clear as mud
I give it 12 months till there is a scheme to convert parts of the centre into flats ("affordable housing" will appear on the submission along with claims of "boosting night time economy", "more welcoming in the evening" and "reducing anti social behaviour")
MJD
says...
10:22am Wed 13 Feb 13
l'anglais
says...
10:39am Wed 13 Feb 13
MJD wrote:What about the job loses if you knock it down?
Bulldoze it. I use Castlepoint. Free parking. Even West Quays or even Gunwharf Quays for a day out.
BmthNewshound
says...
11:25am Wed 13 Feb 13
.
The Dolphin Centres previous owner Wereldhave announced a profit warning following negative property revaluations in the UK shopping centre portfolio which probably prompted the sale.
.
Apart from some cosmetic changes I don't think that L&G will be rushing to pump another £6.5m into the Dolphin Centre especially with the current state of uncertainty in the retail sector.
crispy_pants
says...
11:28am Wed 13 Feb 13
uvox44 wrote:It is grim. And didn't they spend about £350,000 revamping it? What a waste.
is Poole bus station the worst in the UK? It is dark, grimy, a smokers paradise , cold - just grim in virtually every way - if there are any worse bus stations out there then I truely feel sorry for the people that have to use them!
Marshwood
says...
1:37pm Wed 13 Feb 13
awsokend wrote:You forgot the tattoo shops and those places down the end of the High street where you can sell stolen jewellery and such like.
The only shops in poole with any customers are poundland and primark
UNLESS YOU KNOW DIFFERENT
canfordheathview
says...
2:25pm Wed 13 Feb 13
The bus station needs a proper facelift with better lighting.
I had a word with a councillor about cleaning the path but there is no money in the budget this year. The path is owned in sections by Wilts and Dorset,Poole Borough Council and The Dolphin Centre, who should pay the bill?
I pay just over 6 thousand pays rates a year and what do I get for it? I still have to pay 1 thousand pound a year to park my car in the multi storey car park.
I could rant on forever but no one listens so what is the point!!
canfordcherry
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3:22pm Wed 13 Feb 13
mark1987
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3:39pm Wed 13 Feb 13
Marshwood wrote:Do you understand how pathetic you both sound.
awsokend wrote: The only shops in poole with any customers are poundland and primark UNLESS YOU KNOW DIFFERENTYou forgot the tattoo shops and those places down the end of the High street where you can sell stolen jewellery and such like.
If you do not have any educated input then do not input at all.
I personally could not care less what a shopping centre looks like aslong as it has shops in it. I am a regular customer of the majority of shops in Poole and have no issue apart from the shops that are forced to shut down.
djkent
says...
5:15pm Wed 13 Feb 13
awsokend
says...
7:16pm Wed 13 Feb 13
mark1987 wrote:Well you wont have to worry then will you
Marshwood wrote:Do you understand how pathetic you both sound.
awsokend wrote: The only shops in poole with any customers are poundland and primark UNLESS YOU KNOW DIFFERENTYou forgot the tattoo shops and those places down the end of the High street where you can sell stolen jewellery and such like.
If you do not have any educated input then do not input at all.
I personally could not care less what a shopping centre looks like aslong as it has shops in it. I am a regular customer of the majority of shops in Poole and have no issue apart from the shops that are forced to shut down.
Tattoo man wont close hes overrun,
Poundland is always packed full
and Primark is a little gold mine
the charity shops are thriving,
the bus station is always full cos the bus don't turn up.
regards selling stolen jewellery ????????
ashleycross
says...
9:37am Thu 14 Feb 13
canfordheathview wrote:Keep ranting, don't give up on Poole, go for it, we need people who care about making the bus station somewhere to be proud of.
Being a shop owner in the bus station, I believe the footfall count is done on a counter system so every time you walk in you get counted and how many counted are staff? The footfall is down on previous years.
The bus station needs a proper facelift with better lighting.
I had a word with a councillor about cleaning the path but there is no money in the budget this year. The path is owned in sections by Wilts and Dorset,Poole Borough Council and The Dolphin Centre, who should pay the bill?
I pay just over 6 thousand pays rates a year and what do I get for it? I still have to pay 1 thousand pound a year to park my car in the multi storey car park.
I could rant on forever but no one listens so what is the point!!
ashleycross
says...
9:43am Thu 14 Feb 13
MJD wrote:Not just that, they have security staff so it is safe going back to your car or to the bus stop, in contrast to going to the car park or bus station in Poole. The trouble is if you ask for security at the bus station you get told there is virtually no anti social behaviour and the smoking and anti littering laws can't be enforced because no one will give them council officers their address. Keep up the pressure on our councillors to get the council officers out to the bus station to enforce these laws. Poole needs a clean safe bus station for old and young alike. What are we teaching the young of Poole by leaving them to wallow in the muck there? How will that teach them to be fine upstanding citizens? Show respect to them to earn it back by providing them with clean safe public transport.
Bulldoze it. I use Castlepoint. Free parking. Even West Quays or even Gunwharf Quays for a day out.
static kill says...
5:20pm Tue 12 Feb 13
They should have left their money in a current account.