Towncentre plummets in shopping centre rankings

Athlone"s newest shopping centre has been dealt a blow by an industry survey which indicated that it"s performing poorly in comparison with other shopping centres. Retail Excellence Ireland"s annual productivity review, published last week, saw Athlone Towncentre drop 31 places in its overall ranking of Irish shopping centres. The centre - which opened in November 2007 and has recently seen the closure of some outlets such as Zavvi, Principles and Barratts - was ranked 53rd overall, out of the 58 centres listed in the survey. Meanwhile, Golden Island Shopping Centre moved up fourteen places to a ranking of joint 10th place among Irish shopping centres. The productivity review took into account rent levels, footfall (the number of customers through the door), service charges and occupancy rates in measuring shopping centre productivity from the tenant"s perspective. Responding to publication of the report, Aidan Grimes of Bannon Commercial, managing agents for Athlone Towncentre, said the retail industry was facing unprecedented pressure as a result of the country"s economic situation. 'The retail industry is in a very challenged position at the moment and obviously Athlone Towncentre is not immune to the economic sentiment that"s out there,' he told the Westmeath Independent on Monday. 'The centre is still very much in its formation stage and it takes approximately 30 months for any centre to truly establish itself and gain a good platform. 'But the timing is also a factor. 2008 was the centre"s first full year of trading and it was probably the toughest time we"ve ever had in the Irish retail industry,' said Mr Grimes. 'Clearly we have more work to do. Some stores have closed but new names will be coming in to replace them, and over the next twelve months to two years we can work to build the centre up again.' The manager of the Golden Island Shopping Centre, Tony McDermott, said he had some doubts about the accuracy of surveys such as this one, but he felt that the centre was performing well given the current financial climate. 'The bottom line for us is how many people are coming in and how much are they spending? Those are the two most important things, and judging by those two criteria I think Golden Island is coping extremely well with the recession,' he commented. In addition to the overall shopping centre rankings, the Retail Industry Ireland survey included individual rankings for "Rent by 1,000 weekly footfall" (Golden Island ranked 11th, Athlone Towncentre ranked 54th, out of 58) as well as "Service charge by 1,000 weekly footfall" (Golden Island ranked 20th, Athlone Towncentre ranked 43rd) and an estimate of the current occupancy of retail units at Irish shopping centres (Golden Island ranked 9th, Athlone Towncentre ranked 50th). Nationally, Dundrum Town Centre was ranked as the most productive shopping centre location in Ireland. Commenting at the launch of the survey on Thursday last, chief executive of Retail Excellence Ireland, David Fitzsimons, said the findings showed that some new centres were struggling to attract customers given the more difficult market conditions. 'New centres such as the Athlone Towncentre, Beacon Centre in Sandyford (Dublin), MacDonagh Junction (Kilkenny) and the Laurence Centre (Drogheda), all ranked in the bottom 10 with tenants paying premium rents for an unacceptable trading performance,' he said. 'While it does take longer for new shopping centres to become established, tenants cannot be expected to keep paying excessive rent premiums while landlords figure out a strategy to get business going. Rents have to be modified if we are to prevent one or more underperforming shopping centres from failing in 2009,' said Mr Fitzsimons.