Ikea owner snaps up Brighton shopping centre
The owner of Ikea has acquired Churchill Square shopping centre, the largest shopping destination in Brighton.
Churchill Square shopping centre is located in walking distance of Brighton Seafront and benefits from nearby bus routes and cycle lanes. It is home to retail tenants including Inditex, Apple, Next, H&M, Urban Outfitters, and Levi’s, as well as food and drink operators such as McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme, and Ed’s Easy Diner.
Ingka Centres will look to make a number of developments to the scheme, including improvements to its energy efficiency to bring the centre up to BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standards.
The group has also acquired Chartwell Court, a nearby residential tower block, two attached car parks, and the leasehold on a third car park site. Ingka intends to extend the number of EV charging points at these sites.
Following its acquisition of the scheme’s freehold, Ingka Centres has also announced plans to bring an Ikea City store to the destination.
The new Ikea store will open in the site of the former Debenhams store and will be the brand’s third city store in the UK, along with sites in London’s Hammersmith and Oxford Street.
Cindy Andersen, Ingka Centres’ managing director, said: “Brighton is known as a welcoming and progressive city, so it is a real privilege to take up responsibility for delivering a revitalised meeting place of which the many people can be truly proud. We are excited to strengthen our portfolio with a well-established shopping destination in the heart of the vibrant and growing city of Brighton and Hove. It fits perfectly into our global expansion strategy, allowing us to transform a traditional retail space to a meeting place that is much more than just a place to shop.
“We’ve proven in Hammersmith that traditional shopping centres have a strong future when they are adapted and constantly evolving to match the real needs of local communities. We’ll be working alongside our partners such as IKEA and the wider community to make everyday life better for the many people of Brighton, shaping and delivering an affordable, sustainable range of destination retail, restaurants, services and amenities.”