Ingka Centres, part of the Ingka Group which also includes IKEA Retail, has today announced the freehold acquisition of Brighton’s main shopping centre, Churchill Square. IKEA UK and Ireland is thrilled to confirm plans to bring a brand new IKEA City store to the popular site.
Churchill Square currently benefits from a quality mix of flagship retail and dining options that has traditionally attracted more than 11 million visitors annually. Retail tenants include Inditex, Apple, Next, H&M, Urban Outfitters and Levi’s alongside a food court with McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme and Ed’s Easy Diner. Ingka Centres has also acquired Chartwell Court, a residential tower block on the site, two attached car parks and a leasehold on a third car park.
The new IKEA City Store will open on the site of the former Debenhams and will mark the latest phase of IKEA’s ongoing transformation to become more accessible to customers. The new IKEA City Store will offer a wide array of the brand’s most loved products, with many available for immediate purchase or delivery via zero-emission vehicles.
Ingka Centres intends to develop Churchill Square’s strong retail fundamentals by adapting its retail offer to community needs and to invest in Churchill Place’s infrastructure to play a part in supporting Brighton and Hove City Council’s drive to establish a thriving local circular economy. Future investments will include improvements to energy efficiency to bring the asset up to BREEAM excellent standards while a wider roadmap of initiatives is planned to reflect Ingka Centres global sustainability commitment.
Cindy Andersen, Ingka Centres’ Managing Director, said: “Brighton is known as a welcoming and progressive city, so it is a real privilege to take up responsibility for delivering a revitalised meeting place of which the many people can be truly proud. We are excited to strengthen our portfolio with a well-established shopping destination in the heart of the vibrant and growing city of Brighton and Hove. It fits perfectly into our global expansion strategy, allowing us to transform a traditional retail space to a meeting place that is much more than just a place to shop.”
Peter Jelkeby, Country Retail Manager and Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA UK & Ireland said: “We continue to transform as we respond to our customers’ needs and dreams, today and tomorrow. As one of the most innovative and exciting markets in the world for retail and e-commerce, we will step up our omnichannel investments, both in Brighton and the rest of the country, with a simple goal: to become more customer centric, so that people can shop with us for a better, more sustainable life at home, whenever, wherever and however they choose.”
Churchill Square is located on the main shopping highstreet of Brighton, and within easy walking distance of Brighton seafront and the main railway station. The shopping centre is served by regular bus services and cycle lanes. The site benefits from three car parks where Ingka Centres intends to extend the number of EV charging points, as well as promote the use of public transport to reflect the new IKEA city centre offer which encourages home delivery.
Cindy Andersen continued: “We’ve proven in Hammersmith that traditional shopping centres have a strong future when they are adapted and constantly evolving to match the real needs of local communities. We’ll be working alongside our partners such as IKEA and the wider community to make everyday life better for the many people of Brighton, shaping and delivering an affordable, sustainable range of destination retail, restaurants, services and amenities.”
In October, Ingka Group reached an agreement to sell its Russian portfolio of 14 MEGA shopping centers to a subsidiary of Russian Gazprombank. Ingka Group has been doing business in Russia for more than 20 years. After the sale of shopping centers, Ingka Group will no longer have any operating activities in Russia.
In April, Ingka Group announced an investment of more than Euro 2 billion ($2.2 billion) in omnichannel growth in the United States over the next three years. IKEA US announced new locations in San Francisco, California and Arlington, Virginia.
The U.S. investment push ties into Ingka Group’s continued focus on omnichannel growth and expansion across the world. In Spain the company is investing Euro 150 million in opening many new locations around the country by 2025. It is expanding substantially in the UK and London, where it will open a city store on Oxford Street. In Austria, in just three years, the biggest IKEA retailer has increased the number of stores and planning studios from 8 to 45, making IKEA more accessible than ever before there.
