Cooke & Arkwright is a leading provincial advisor on High Street, and out of town retail property with a focus on Wales. Its market knowledge and expertise gives it an edge in landlord and tenant matters and in development opportunities where it is a major influence. Cooke & Arkwright has helped shape the face and performance of retail property throughout the Principality and understands the needs of property owners, retailers and developers.
Contact:
Huw Thomas, MRICS - Director
email:
Nicholas Swetman, BSc Hons, MRICS - Surveyor
email:
Tel: (029) 20 346346
Cooke & Arkwright has many years of experience in the sale and letting of retail property in Wales, ranging from prime high street shops in the Principality’s main town and city centres, to secondary properties in suburban locations and secondary towns, and throughout retail parks across the region. Much of this market experience has been accumulated in dealing with lettings in a variety of prime retail developments. The department maintains an extensive database of retailers and retailers’ requirements across the region and across the various retail types. This includes details of hundreds of retailers and literally thousands of specific requirements at any given time. This database is meticulously maintained.
Cooke & Arkwright has advised and assisted a number of local and national retailers to achieve and maintain well balanced cost effective representation throughout the region. The Practice has assisted Greggs Plc to expand its Welsh region from a small division of only 12 shops to a major operation comprising 50 outlets covering a geographical area from Llanelli in the west to Chepstow in the east. Cooke & Arkwright’s market knowledge and monitoring of trends and developments throughout the area allows it to adopt a proactive rather than a reactive approach and allows its clients to achieve and maintain well planned, balanced and cost effective representation in the region.
Through its market knowledge, the Practice identifies redevelopment opportunities to ensure that clients are able to exploit latent potential to the full. Often however, such potential is created through the skills and knowledge of the market and market trends. The Practice has been responsible for initiating and promoting a number of the region’s most significant high street and retail park developments. This activity relies fundamentally upon the knowledge and expertise of the Retail Department, but has also benefited from other skills and disciplines within the Practice such as those in compulsory purchase, planning, development funding, research etc. The development function is very much a team effort. Retail schemes completed include The Capitol Shopping Centre, Queen Street Cardiff, Cibi Walk Abergavenny, The Market Place Blackwood, Pontypridd Retail Park, Bridgend Retail Park, as well as superstore sites at Swansea, Barry and Bridgend.
The Practice’s activity in retail relies heavily upon the maintenance of an up to date comprehensive database recording the detail of relevant retail property transactions throughout the region. This accurately records rental detail, rental analysis, accommodation and lease details of over 2000 properties, in many cases recording the rental history of the property over a 20 year period. This information is combined with the skills and expertise of experienced landlord and tenant surveyors, including a number of experienced Arbitrators and Independent Experts, to ensure the provision of sound reliable advice on all rent review, lease renewal and dispute resolution matters.