Dockside at Chatham Maritime is now fully let with additional occupiersseeking space following a series of innovative and groundbreaking lettings.
The 16,257m2 (175,000 sq ft) centre, owned and operated by WD Ltd., has completed six new lettings – including one to the Government – as well as a relocation. The deals are to a wide spectrum of occupier strands including retailing, office, leisure, service businesses and a preschool. Footfall is now up in excess of 2.25 million per annum while spend per head has risen by 13 percent since 2019 according to research group CACI.
Comments Peter Everest of WD Ltd, which purchased the centre in 2015:
“Dockside has become a focal destination – no longer just an outlet centre but a vibrant, fully let outlet+community offer – combining outlet and general retailing along with new integral office space, service providers and leisure offers. The lettings have completely changed the Dockside dynamic and substantially uplifted customer footfall, awareness and destination appeal. As of now we don’t have a spare square inch to lease – we have even just let the bulk of our management suite.”
Proactive tenant engineering has created two new, upper floor offices which have been leased for five and six years respectively by the Department of Work and Pensions and Reed in Business. Additionally, other deals have seen Smil dental services open on the upper level while Simmonds & Sons Ltd. has just inked a 5-year deal on the centre’s ground floor for the school uniform supplies and fashion retailer.
Fashion retailer Lazy Jacks Clothing Company is also opening a new store in the former Cadbury’s Unit in the heart of the centre. As part of the new lettings existing tenant Baggage Factory has relocated to a 161m2 (1,735 sq ft) unit adjacent to Holland & Barrett.
In addition to the new deals, Dockside’s management suite has been relocated to free up additional space for an expansion of the 325m2 (3,500 sq ft) Seashells t/as Dockside Day Nursery and Pre-School. The expansion, which forms part of a new 15-year lease, will allow the community nursery care educational provider, which opened in 2018, to increase its intake from 72 to just over 100 children — a direct reflection of the increase in new homes in the immediate catchment. Some 2,000 new homes have or are being built locally.
The lettings and ‘outlet+community’ approach for Dockside, which is located in the famous former Royal Navy dockyard, is the result of a plan by WD Ltd to both future-proof the centre and, simultaneously, increase customer footfall by encompassing a salient and vibrant mix of new sector offers. Dockside was among the first UK centres to incorporate a school.
Dockside is anchored by The Range and features M&S Outlet, Clarks, Choice, Regatta, Mountain Warehouse, ProCook, Beauty Outlet and Iceland. The centre also boasts 1,450 parking spaces.
The latest deals come after a report on the centre by CACI found that footfall and sales had grown substantially. Indeed, sales and footfall at Dockside have stormed ahead – in the case of footfall by 8.5% in 2021 compared to the same period in June and July in 2019 (the comparative period before the Pandemic impacted UK retail destinations) while spend per head was up 13%. CACI found that around 30% of shoppers are now coming from beyond Dockside’s immediate catchment.
“Dockside offers a unique proposition amongst its peer group,” CACI summarised. “The mix of retail alongside medical services, a nursery, training space and flexible office space, sets it apart from other outlet centres and increases reasons to visit.”
Dockside is located in the heart of Chatham Maritime – an area of 300 acres featuring leisure and restaurant facilities, Chatham Dockyard, and Chatham Marina. On the outlet destination’s doorstep visitors will find some 2,000 new homes, offices, a university campus, Odeon multiplex cinema, restaurants, a 500-berth Marina and the Copper Rivet Distillery. Chatham Historic Dockyard, which which once incorporated Dockside, was the shipyard in which HMS Victory was constructed and launched some 250 years ago and today is a renowned and much-televised museum.
