By Ian McConnell
THE Channel Islands-based owners of Bon Accord shopping centre in Aberdeen have fallen into administration, amid cash-flow problems.
James Fennessey, Blair Milne, Colin Haig and Matthew Richards, partners of accountancy firm Azets, have been appointed as joint administrators of the Guernsey-based owners of the shopping centre, Aberdeen Retail 1 Limited and Aberdeen Retail 2 Limited.
The administrators said it remained “business as usual” for Bon Accord shopping centre while they “implement a strategy to ensure that the operating companies can continue to trade and whilst the centre and its assets are prepared for sale”.
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They added: “The administration has been caused by unsustainable cash-flow problems stemming from the ongoing impact of the Covid pandemic, rising operational costs and intense retail competition.”
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Bon Accord shopping centre, built in 1990, extends to two main buildings on George Street and Union Street. It has 460,000 sq ft of retail space, with 72 units over three floors, and 1,400 car-parking spaces in two owner-operated car parks on the north and south sides of the centre.
Additional buildings on George Street, Upper Kirkgate, Loch Street and Gallowgate provide a further 90,000 sq ft of retail and ancillary space, and 6,300 sq ft of office space.
The average annual footfall to Bon Accord shopping centre was 15 million visitors before the coronavirus pandemic.
Azets said: “A diverse range of retail, hospitality and business tenants are based in the Bon Accord Shopping Centre and include a wide range of national high street retailers, specialist shops, restaurants, cafés and administrative businesses.
The joint administrators are encouraging interested parties to make contact as soon as possible and have appointed specialist commercial property agent Cushman & Wakefield to manage the sale process.
All centre management employees are being retained following the appointment of the administrators.
James Fennessey, restructuring partner at Azets, said: “Bon Accord shopping centre and the St Nicholas Centre, which merged with the Bon Accord in 2020, are long-established and retail centres with a very strong brand name and awareness across the north of Scotland.
“They have consistently attracted and retained a wide range of quality retail tenants over the years, and regularly draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. The contribution of the Bon Accord to the economy of the north-east is significant and the centre is as much a social hub and focal point for the city as it is a retail centre. We will now quickly stabilise the trading position and wish to reassure tenants, shoppers and stakeholders that it is very much business as usual.”
He added: “We are keen to try and find a buyer promptly.”
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