Footfall plunges 30% at St Johns in Liverpool
The shopping centre has blamed the ongoing £9m Lime Street project for the decrease in visitors.
The news comes after NMCN, the main contractor for Lime Street, went into administration. Liverpool City Council said it would use this opportunity to review the scheme. This could mean more delays to a project that was meant to complete in December.
That would be bad news for St Johns, according to centre manager Neil Ashcroft.
“We have already seen our car park occupancy and footfall drop by 30% overnight, and our car park is now the quietest it’s been since the most recent national lockdown,” Ashcroft said. “This is affecting all businesses in the area, but independent retailers are certainly going to be hit the hardest.”
Ashcroft also urged the council to act quickly.
“As a shopping centre located in the heart of the city and home to a range of independent businesses who rely heavily on footfall in the local area, I sincerely hope that Liverpool City Council and its partners will work to remedy the situation in the fastest and most appropriate way possible,” he said.
Regarding the Lime Street contractor, Grant Thornton is the administrator for NMCN Group and is selling off parts of the company. Already NMCN’s telecoms, plant and water divisions have been sold. A sale was not arranged for the buildings division, however. But, news regarding the sale of the infrastructure division is expected in the coming days.
Online shopping. Also some of the older generation just prefer now to get the shopping they need and head off home. Some people still don’t feel safe in public areas because of what has been going on for the last 21 months.
By Darren Born Bred.
Not really a surprise that footfall has decreased in most shopping centres surely?
By Simon
Drop the whole thing and make an urban park. Shopping habits have changed and shifted towards Liverpool One, making this precinct surplus to requirements. The city would be better without it.
By Old Hall Street
As it stands, they’re screwed. Impact on legitimate business was never a consideration.
And if you think this centre makes a bad impression on visitors coming out of lime street now, just wait until it’s half empty. I know a lot of people would like to see this centre levelled, but the city’s economy no longer supports that level of intervention.
You can thank a decade of stagnation for that.
By Jeff
It will eventually go the same way as the ill fated market….the whole area given over to retail catering…fast food outlets…bars …this concept is no longer valid….and St John’s Precinct.well beyond its sell by date
By Tercol
Another waste of money. No one wants Lime St to be pedestrianised.
By Dorothy Simpson
Just grim, time to go!
By Rich X
The city Council have successfully destroyed the feeling of shopping in the restyling of the food market its absolutely souless also the other side of the retail market is looking dated and not very appealing the only saviour is the food section it needs a revamp of the boxes the councill call a market should go back to basics
By Vincent
Let’s face it St.John’s has become an unwelcoming dump. Aldi has added reason to go there. Then when you exit Aldi you see idiots smoking next to the children’s roundabout. Pay toilets and the demise of the market have added to the decline. It needs a total rethink and modernisation.
By chooch
Feel St John’s should just be demolished it looks so ugly now.
By Dan McCool
St John’s was built as part of Shankland’s great masterplan for Liverpool, or rather his *disaster plan * for Liverpool. Mercifully only the Churchill flyover and St John’s got built. They demolished the grand market hall and a number of other buildings that would be listed now and it was described at the time as an act of civic vandalism, which it absolutely was, but it was the 1960’s/70’s , a grim time for town planning and heritage.
Outlets the size of St John’s are circling the retail drain as shopping habits have irrevocably changed and it’s only getting exponentially worse. It’s a prime site in the city and it absolutely should not be dominated by a bland piece of 1960’s dreck
that is well past it’s sell by date & usefulness. It is time to consign another act of Shankland’s masterplan brutalism to a heap of rubble like the Churchill flyover
By David