Retail giant Mike Ashley set to buy The Mall in Luton in £70m deal

Retail tycoon Mike Ashley looks set to buy The Mall shopping centre in Luton in a £70m deal.

Ashley’s Frasers Group is said to be in advanced talks to buy the centre which was put up for sale last summer for £81 million.

It’s believed Frasers, which already operates a Sports Direct store in The Mall, is planning to carve up the centre’s former Debenhams store into outlets for Frasers-owned chains such as Flannels and USC.

The sale is being handled by the lender Wells Fargo, which is reported to have taken control of the asset from its previous owner, the listed landlord Capital & Regional.

The Mall, a 1 million square foot shopping centre in the heart of Luton, boasts122 retailers, over 2,000 employees, 18 million visitors and around £200m gross sales annually (pre-Covid).

Capital & Regional bought the centre in 2006, and since 2012 had invested £35m upgrading and maintaining The Mall Luton with new retailers and services.

In 2021 the centre welcomed a new Lidl store, extended Primark, and relocated and upsized the Footlocker and Polish Deli stores, as well as welcoming a number of new independent stores. The Tesco Express store was also refurbished in 2019.

Capital & Regional had fought a long battle against Luton Town FC’s plans for an out of town shopping centre at Newlands Park but confirmed it would not appeal after its bid for a Judicial Review into planning permission for the Park was rejected.

Capital & Regional had carried out considerable work on the plans, including commissioning analysis and research from the market-leading sports business group at Deloitte.

But the company’s annual accounts in March 2022 reported that Luton, along with its centre in Hemel Hempstead, had been reclassified as a Held for Sale ‘Managed Assets’ reflecting the substance of Group’s ongoing involvement and expectation of a disposal.

Arndale House, a five storey office block with 52,000 sq ft of office space located in the centre, is leased to Luton Council which has offices and the Adult Learning Centre, Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust and Luton Justice Centre.

The Frasers deal also includes purchasing the Overgate centre in Dundee for £30m.

C&R has been contacted for comment.