The Octagon Centre, Burton upon Trent
In May 2014, Vixcroft acquired The Octagon, a centre of 1145,846 sq ft originally constructed in 1990 and occupying a site of 4.412 10.9 acres, incorporating 770 surface parks spaces, anchored by Asda (55,000 sq ft) and TK Maxx (24,000 sq ft). The mall comprises 40 unit shops and connects the car park to New Street and the town’s other Centre, Coopers Square. Annual footfall at purchase was 4.5 million and has now increased to 4.9 million.
The Centre was originally anchored by a Beatties department store. The TK Maxx store was added in 2000. Beatties was Acquired by House of Fraser, who closed the store in September 2012 and the ground level of the store was subsequently let to Poundland. Aside from these changes, when Vixcroft acquired it, the Centre was largely unaltered from its condition at original completion in 1990.
The Centre has strong fundamentals in terms of its location, configuration and footfall. Vixcroft plans to augment the Centre’s performance through reconfiguration and the upgrade of its offer.
Since purchase, Vixcroft has:
- Completed 5 new unit shop lettings
- Secured planning permission for an improved fascia and entrance from the car park
- Submitted a proposal to the Local Authority, East Staffordshire District Council, for public realms improvements in New Street
- Implemented a strategy that creates flexibility to secure space required to implement a reconfiguration of the centre