Wirral's independent local news website
The Pyramid Shopping Centre and the Grange Precinct in Birkenhead has been put up for sale by current owners, the Mars Pension Fund.
Mars acquired Pyramid Shopping Centre for almost £70m in 2011.
The Pyramids and The Grange shopping precinct occupy a 12.9 acre site in the heart of Birkenhead town centre and together they dominate the local retail provision.
The Pyramids, built in the 1980s, comprises 149,120 sq ft of retail floor space and includes a food court. The Grange Precinct, built in the 1970s, is an open-air shopping precinct providing 436,673 sq ft of retail and leisure floor space.
Grange Road, anchored by an Asda supermarket, and Birkenhead Market is not included in the sale as it is not owned by the Mars Pension Fund. The area that is for sale is bounded in red in the map below.
Marks & Spencer still holds the lease to the space it used to occupy on Borough Pavement but is no longer trading. Marks & Spencer has said that it is committed to opening new stores across the UK in 2023 and discussions are currently ongoing to reoccupy the space on Borough Pavement and open an M&S Food store within this unit.
Combined, the Pyramids and the Grange Precinct produce an annual net income of £4.5m and occupy a total area of 1.8m sq ft. The Pyramid Shopping Centre alone generates £1.1m annually.
Pre-Covid (2019) footfall stood at 9.4 million people per annum.
Mars may consider offers for individual assets within the portfolio. This could provide an opportunity for Wirral Growth Company to expand its control over the town centre, which it is currently redeveloping. The Wirral Growth Company has already purchased part of Milton Pavement, which was demolished to pave the way for the first phase of the town centre project.
Knight Frank LLP is acting as agent for the sale.
Images: Knight Frank
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