East Kilbride shopping centre is being sold off by its administrators, it was announced today.
Savills has been instructed to market the commercial property on behalf of Interpath Advisory.
EK, East Kilbride, Scotland’s largest undercover shopping and leisure centre, went into administration just weeks before Christmas 2022.
Owners Sapphire, a Luxembourg-based shell company, became insolvent, plunging the future of the centre into uncertainty.
It followed a series of difficult years for the centre, which has struggled to retain existing, or attract new, businesses to the town.
Scoop – asset manager to Interpath – has since worked with South Lanarkshire Council to stabilise the centre.
And the council has given the green light for a “bold” £62.2m, 10-year masterplan that “will radically transform the shopping and leisure destination into a vibrant, high-quality urban environment”.
As part of the redevelopment, the neighbouring Centre West Shopping Centre will be bulldozed and converted into a housing development, creating up to 400 new homes in the heart of the town.
It is hoped the move will drive an annual footfall of approximately 15 million, returning to pre-pandemic levels. A national supermarket chain and a budget hotel have so far been granted leases.
The retail space spans approximately one million square feet across distinct malls: Plaza, Olympia, Princes Mall and Princes Square. The centre is anchored by tenants such as Primark, JD Sports and Odeon Luxe.
The development also offers 1,700 parking spaces.
Mark Hewett, partner at Scoop, commented: “This represents a rare opportunity to acquire a major regional scheme and site, with the ability to collaborate with the local authority on a transformative scheme and town that holds immense potential to generate substantial value for the local community.”
Alistair McAlinden, head of Interpath Advisory in Scotland, said: “Over the past 22 months, substantial work has been undertaken by multiple stakeholders including South Lanarkshire Council to ensure that this development, as part of the 10-year masterplan, will generate transformative value for the town of East Kilbride and the local community.”
Mark Garmon-Jones, director of retail investment at Savills, added: “The redevelopment, guided by the masterplan endorsed earlier this year, is set to realign the town centre and its community, offering significant potential for short-term running yield improvement and long-term transformation of the asset as it is strategically repositioned.”
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