The 'outlet deck' should have been turned into a 'department store deck' - the full floor turned into a small John Lewis or a small Ikea... something that would actually act as an anchor store to draw people in, gain footfall and allow PQ to use the high footfall numbers to attract more/better retailers and restaurants.
Zara's new strategy is to close stores and be in only 6/7 cities in the UK and focus on online sales. I'd guess that after London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds & Liverpool that fills the 6/7 quota.
Inditex, owners of Zara, aim to open 450 stores in 2017, up from the 279 they opened in 2016. They are closing smaller stores and opening bigger ones in bigger cities, but they'll certainly be in more than 6/7 cities. And John Lewis are not remotely interested in opening in Hull, I doubt IKEA are either.
A screen grab from the revised Cruise Terminal feasibility study, not much detail I'm afraid... please log in to view this image
It never looks good on that road. There's always litter and yesterday the bench opposite had **** loads of carlsberg cans strewn all ovet
So you drive past that on the right as you come into the city and just as you stop at the lights top of Ferensway you look left and see what? A load of Willy Booers sat on the bench with their tops off drinking Special Brew outside of their hostel. If you stay at the new Hilton hotel you can also look forward to seeing the same sorts going into the dole office on the corner of Ferensway and Spring Bank. Can't remember the name of the place. Welcome to Hull. We don't do ourselves any favours at times.
It was in the Hull Daily Mail they said their reason for closing and not opening a store elsewhere in Hull is because they have a new policy of only being in the biggest 6/7 cities in the UK and want to concentrate on online sales. Ikea have been discussed as being in talks with the developers of Kingswood for a click and collect store. But a full floor of a shopping centre in desperate need of a new anchor to attract shoppers and new retailers (meaning they'd probably let them come in rent free for a while) plus the ease of an on-site multi-storey car park, would make sense. Agree, it would take a lot of desperation from Princes Quay to get Ikea to try it, but them going all out with incentives to get them in for the long-term future of the shopping centre would be a lot better than an already old-fashioned outlet deck.
It should definitely be located next to Albert Dock - use the waste land next to Humber Quays and the 'to be demolished' Ice arena for cruise terminal amenities.
