Frasers Group buys shopping centre for £58m

Frasers Group has bought a shopping centre for £58m and has “confidence in the future of the UK High Street”, it said.

The Mall in Luton, with more than 150 retailers, was put up for sale by Capital & Regional last year.

It opened as The Arndale Centre in 1972 and renamed in the 1990s.

Frasers Group, which is owned by Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley, said it was a “key retail destination”.

The Mall, bought by Capital & Regional in 2006, generated fees of £1.4m in 2022, it said.

Captial & Regional said it had “previously deconsolidated its interest in The Mall, Luton,meaning the gross assets related to the investment are nil and therefore the transaction does not result in any profit or loss on disposal to the Group”.

Frasers Group said The Mall was a “prime retail location in the town centre”.

It “provides attractive opportunities for the Group to introduce new elevated store concepts and invest in the scheme”.

It added it was looking forward to working with Luton Council to “stabilise and elevate the scheme”.

James France, Frasers’ head of real estate, said: “We continue to have confidence in the future of the UK High Street and remain committed to investing in sites which display huge potential.”

In 2019 Capital & Regional took legal action to stop the building of the Newlands Park development at junction 10 of the M1.

The plans, at the time, were to build a leisure and retail facility to help finance Luton Town Football Club’s new town centre stadium, Power Court, which is due to replace their current Kenilworth Road ground.

In December, plans to remove the retail aspects of the scheme were approved.

Capital & Regional still owns and manages shopping centres in Hemel Hempstead, Ilford, Maidstone, Redditch, Walthamstow and Wood Green, it said.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story idea for us, get in touch via eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk