New hotels in Shoreditch to boost retail offering

As Shoreditch prepares for the opening of no less than seven new hotels, including Nobu, Citizen M and Gansevoort, the retail offering in the area will likely be affected due to the increasingly international allure brought in by the hotels.

According to global real estate firm Savills, a number of retail brands will benefit from the presence of these hotels and will seek to align themselves with the hotel brands and their customers. With the opening of these new hotels, the Shoreditch area will see a 137 percent increase in ‘overnight guests’, increasing from 130,000 to 308,000 by the end of 2018.

Hotel openings in Shoreditch to attract new retail offering

“The attraction of the Shoreditch area was originally driven by its reputation as a creative hub, in turn boosting its visitor appeal,” commented Marie Hickey, Director of Savills research in a statement. “Hotel brands have latched onto this appeal. What is really interesting now is that we’re seeing international ‘luxury’ hotel brands such as Nobu and Gansevoort open their first London outposts in Shoreditch and its the profile of these brands and their clientele, along with the office and residential story, that will be a key driver of the evolution of Shoreditch’s retail offer.”

The opening of the Boundary Hotel and Shoreditch House acted as key catalyst in boosting the profile of Redchurch Street as a fashion destination with a number of brands opening locations there, including J Crew, Versace’s Versus and The Modern Society Boutique. In addition the Old Spitalfields Market has also seen a number of new brands opening in the area including Alexander McQueen, Belstaff and Jo Malone. “The locations best placed to capitalise from this are likely to be those locations under single ownership, such as Old Spitalfields Market, as they are able to ‘curate’ the retail experience providing tenants some comfort in terms of alignment of neighbouring brands as well as coherently marketing it as a retail destination,” added Hickey.

As the new hotel openings in Shoreditch continue to attract more and more international visitors, increased interest in the area from non-domestics brands and retailers such as Cos and Anthropologie, which have stores on Brushfield Street, and MAC and Bobbi Brown, which own stores in Old Spitalfields Market has also increased. According to Savills, the rising demand for retail space in the area has already been reflected in the rental growth, with a 11.8 percent average annual increase in prime ZA rents in the Shoreditch area being reported over the past two years.

“A number of retailers are increasingly looking to the Shoreditch area in the same way they would look to the West End as they wish to gain exposure to London’s international visitors,” said Oliver Green, director of retail at Savills. “We expect this to continue as schemes such as Old Spitalfields Market and Redchurch Street firmly establish themselves as shopping destinations.” The opening of other hotels, such as the Andre Balazs Chiltern Firehouse in Marylebone and The Rosewood Hotel and The Hoxton are also noted to have a similar effect on Chiltern Street and Holborn respectively.