Mars launches 585,000 sq ft Wirral retail sale
Pyramid Shopping Centre in Birkenhead, situated at the heart of an area undergoing extensive redevelopment, is being sold by the pension fund.
Spanning 585,000 sq ft and home to tenants including Next and River Island, the retail complex has dominated Birkenhead town centre since it was built in the late 1980s.
The shopping centre is being sold by Knight Frank as part of Mars Pension Fund’s Galaxy portfolio.
The other three centres in the portfolio are the 170,000 sq ft Airedale Centre in Keighley, the 618,000 sq ft Middleton grange in Hartlepool, and the 428,000 sq ft Kingdom Centre in Glenrothes.
Together, the assets total 1.8m sq ft and generate £4.5m net income a year.
Pyramid alone generates £1.1m a year.
It is understood that Mars – which bought Pyramid Shopping Centre in 2011 for just shy of £70m – will entertain offers for individual assets within the portfolio, which could present an opportunity for Wirral Growth Company to take further control of the town centre it is currently redeveloping.
A spokesperson for Wirral Council said: “We are aware of the proposed sale of the town centre site and will be looking at the implications of this for the future regeneration of Birkenhead.”
At present, work on two offices totalling 190,000 sq ft is nearing completion. Future phases include the creation of a new market hall on the town’s House of Fraser site, as well as around 650 homes, a 110-bedroom hotel, and a 300-space car park.
Wirral Growth Company has already acquired a chunk of the Pyramids, known as Milton Pavements, that it demolished to make way for the first phase of the town centre scheme.
Will be worth a great deal less than £70 million now. M&S closed down in 2018; the TJ Hughes in the picture went in 2021. Ideally the Council could step in and buy it for redevelopment/drastic updating/reducing to more viable size, if cheap enough, as has happened elsewhere, but financial state of WMBC possibly makes that unlikely. Birkenhead used to do well as a more pleasant alternative to Liverpool City Centre, pre Liverpool one when it was pretty grotty, and Cheshire Oaks in the other direction can’t help much either, in terms of remaining bricks and mortar shoppers.
By Rotringer
Let’s hope that The Pyramids Shopping precinct stays in It’s usual pristine condition. It has always been a feather in the cap of Birkenhead shopping centre.
By John Lewis
not happy no shops
By Anonymous
Not mentioned any new shops. If theres not enough shops it will end up a ghost town.
By Anonymous
The inside of the Pyramids upstairs is just like Chester’s Grosvenor Shopping Centre now. I.E. Rows of empty shops and those that open simply close within 12 months.
By Hazza
Why on earth does Birkenhead need 110 bed hotel.
By Anonymous
Great news! Demolish almost all of the grange part of the shopping centre, its not nice to walk through and feels hostile now nothing is left! Create more housing above retail units bu building nicer buildings. The links to liverpool are so convenient it should be made more attractive. Consolodate all current retail units into one area so you can get a good chunk where TJ’s/M&S was to demolish that inner row! And demolish the part where Burtons was so you can open up that area and build the market there instead of hidden away by Argos and next to a huge roundabout!!!
By Urbanplann
Remember when I was younger been taken on the bus to Birkenhead in 70s and 80s to go shopping before the time of the Pyramids. Like most shopping areas councils get greedy charging for parking money and business rates. One shop leaves that draws in customers and then another leaves until it’s a runaway train. Meanwhile the croft in Bromborough which in the 70s and 80s used to be all fields has been developed and draws in business with warehouse and factories also opening in the area. The focus of economic activity has switched in 30 years. Faffing around with developments is not going to help if shops don’t want to be there.
By Steven