Marble Plus
In an instant Marble Plus, a kitchen showroom, has appeared on the High Street next to the unit that was Hairs & Graces. I think that the shop sign went up this week and they are already trading. It is good to see more movement down that end of town.
Hopefully the Hairs & Graces unit will be let soon as it is looking rather untidy with most of the furniture still in there.
posted by The Cockerel @ 10:47 PM
6 Comments:
Yes Marble Plus has finally opened, the South Street Wine Bar and Ceylon Tavern has also opened since your last post. Origin have also opened up once again. According to an anonymous poster, this unit was firmly under offer but the deal fell through. Certainly South Street seems to be doing alright and the eastern end of the High Street certainly seems to be picking up. The big blot in Dorking continues to be St. Martin's Walk. Another retailer seems to have closed this week according to DORKING Dan. Steads seems to have shut its doors on a permanent basis. Does anyone know what happened to this shop? Have they gone into administration, failed to pay their bills, or was this yet another short term let? It seems now that there is more empty units in St. Martin's Walk than shops that are actually trading at present. Since I moved to Dorking six years ago, I can safely say that this shopping centre is in the worst shape I have ever seen. Can somebody fill me in, is this shopping centre privately owned or is it run by the Council? Jo
I have been reading this blog for months and have been very interested in particular, reading the public's comments about St. Martins Walk. I am a Chartered Surveyor and I am afraid things are not going to get any better for the forseeable future down in St. Martins Walk. The management still remains the same, however, they have recently changed agents from Colliers CRE to NB Real Estate. St. Martins Walk is indeed a privately run shopping centre and it is still owned by Thornfield Properties plc.
A quick glance of the available empty premises in St. Martins Walk, will give you an idea how much the rents are. Don't forget that these do not include business rates, service charges, utilities and staff wages.
8 St Martins Walk - (used to be the Baby Boom unit) 1,994 square foot - Rent: £42,500 per annum - 5 year lease
9 St Martins Walk - (used to Studio RT unit) 1,181 square foot - Rent: £26,000 per annum - 5 year lease
13 St Martins Walk - (used to be Vandevi unit) 1,020 square foot - Rent: £18,000 per annum *
15 St Martins Walk - (used to be Simply Nails unit) 315 square foot - Rent: £9,500 per annum *
17 St Martins Walk - (used to be Ethnicity unit / often used as Santas Grotto in recent years) 223 square foot - Rent: £5,500 per annum - 5 year lease
25 St Martins Walk - used to be Nightingale unit, empty unit next to Fothergills) 752 square foot - Rent: £27,500 per annum - 5 year lease
*No details on length of lease. Will probably fuel speculation about Sainsbury's ?
So, there you have it. Have heard that Le Chocolat which is next to the White Horse will close in late 2008. Also have heard rumour doing the rounds in Dorking, that Sainsbury's are interested in buying the freehold to the Friends Provident offices near the train station. Friends Provident are rumoured to be taken over very shortly and they need a major cash injection. Sainsbury's are also keen to find a larger, more suitable site in the Dorking area. It is no secret that they are keen to move from their cramped High Street store to a larger site on the outskirts of Dorking.
Great blog & it is brilliant that the posts from the Cockerel have continued after such a such a long absence.
Nigel
Thanks Nigel for your information about the empty units down in SMW. I was so pleased to hear that Colliers CRE are no longer the agents down there. They were pathetic at trying to let the empty units, their customer service skills were awful and they never had the grace to call anyone back. My son was interested in letting a unit down in SMW, some years ago but, the guy never called him back after my son's numerous phone calls. He moved the goal posts numerous times and was never on hand to show him around the unit. In the end, he gave up and opened up a premises in Farnham instead. Hopefully NB Real Estate will market the empty units well and that some good quality tenants can be found as quickly as possible. I also see that the ex-Fairy Kingdom, Ziboh Interiors and the former stationery shop have not been marketed yet by the new agents. So, that makes a grand total of NINE empty units in SMW, that must be an all-time high. Also noticed that the post office in South Street is due to close very shortly. Apparently, the owner owns the freehold to the premises. Nice to see that the new wine bar in South Street and the Ceylon Tavern also in South Street were really buzzing last night. Heard on the grapevine that the ex-Pizza Piazza premises might become an upmarket fish restaurant like Drakes or Loch Fyne. If that is the case, that would be great news for Dorking. ~AP~
Am the only one who is amazed on what they ask for rentals down in St. Martin's Walk? It is little wonder why there are so many empty units down there. The same applies to the Swan Centre in Leatherhead. Why can't the agents be realistic in this current economic climate? No small business would be able to afford the crazy rents quoted, as well as the business rates and the other things quoted by Nigel above. The big chains also probably have no time St. Martin's Walk as the place is becoming increasingly rundown and the shoppers have decided to call time on Dorking unfortunately and shop in Epsom, Guildford, Reigate and Crawley.
Leatherhead Lip
If what Mr Nigel says is correct about Sainsburys being interested in Friends Prov. Then this will be the final nail in the coffin for poor old Dorking. Just what we need, a supermarket on a colossal scale with a mammoth car park out of reach of the town. What then will be the need for anyone to come onto the High Street, when there will be a gigantic supermarket selling everything known to man out of town.
Congratulations to the Dorking SOS. This is the bunch of idiots who were all so dead against Sainsburys moving to the other sites that were earmarked for supermarket development, you have won your battle and in doing so well and truly destroyed the heart of the town centre.
The Mole
Add Steads to another empty premises in St. Martins Walk.
Agree with the post above by The Mole, if Sainsbury's ever secure planning permission to built a gigantic superstore on the Friends Provident site, it would be a disaster on an enormous scale for Dorking. What would be the point in having a town centre? The shops, restaurants, coffee shops and pubs would all suffer. As for losing an office complex of this scale, it would have far reaching consequences for Dorking and for Mole Valley. Imagine all the job losses!! It seems that Mole Valley District Council will have their hands full with the supermarkets / superstores for the forseeable future. The residents of Ashtead are fighting against Tesco from opening up on The Street. There is already a Tesco Express less than a mile away in Craddocks Avenue and there is a Tesco supermarket about two to three miles away in Leatherhead. Meanwhile, Waitrose want to open up in Bookham destroying a parade of shops which include an independent fishmonger, greengrocer, electrical shop etc. Is it high time that the Competition Watchdog regulated the rise of the supermarkets which is at the expense of the small independent businesses. Yes, I agree that the Sainsbury's in Dorking is a real shambles, is cramped and is the most stressful place to do a bit of shopping. I went to the much larger Sainsbury's in Leatherhead yesterday. However, the layout of the store was not at all logical, there were aisles of electrical goods, clothes and other nonsense items and I am afraid, my shop was still a very, very stressful experience.
DORKING Dan
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