Future Town 2028: A look forward 10 years into the future for our high streets

Picture this: it is 2028 and our town centres are different to how they were in 2017, but just how different and what might we expect to find? It is a cool autumn morning and you are on foot for the last part of your journey to work. You pass a new mansion block, built on a site where shops on the edge of the centre once stood. The demand for physical retail space having fallen and the surplus units on the periphery of the shopping core redeveloped for new uses. Even more people are living in town centres these days. The ground floor of the mansion block houses a consolidation centre serving most of the stores on the high street and some businesses in the local area. A hydrogen fuel cell truck is unloading in the delivery bay – the tail lift drops silently. (The residents living above don’t mind the quiet, retimed deliveries because the streets are now quieter during the day and less polluted too). The old service yards at the back of the high street have been developed instead for new homes, offices, fitness and leisure uses. Your watch buzzes – the café next to your office has picked up that you are 200m away – your coffee is on the counter ready for you. You pass another café featuring serviced mini work spaces – or is it a serviced mini work space featuring a café? The lines have become all the more blurred and mixed-use the norm, but the value of people working face-to-face makes informal workplaces like these as popular as ever. You arrive at work and the morning passes smoothly. Before you know it, it is time to grab some lunch. Time is tight, but you don’t need to go far. There are plenty of pop-up pods on the nearby streets where cars once lined the pavements – now transformed into informal public spaces and pocket parks. Car ownership has fallen since autonomous cars became more accepted. The shops are still there in the high street – the bricks-and-mortar retailers sitting alongside former online-only retailers. The innovators who have harnessed technology and best used data to understand their customers are thriving. The stores that were once the largest have been subdivided into smaller experience centres. Staff are on hand to advise and demonstrate, but all the tills are gone. It’s self-service and tap-to-pay. Your watch buzzes again as you pass the bookshop. The screen reads: “Hello, in stock, the new book you were browsing last night”. You choose the “reserve” option and plan to pick it up later. After lunch you call up your bike from the underground cycle stacker beside the office and head to a client meeting. You spot a new in-town cine-restaurant en route. Leisure and retail have become all the more entwined. After the meeting the day is nearly done. Perhaps you will head back to watch a film if you don’t have to work too late. It is Friday, after all! … Let’s see how close this is to the reality when 2028 arrives. Paul Keywood, associate director, Turley In the news Costa to buy out jv partner in China Coffee chain Costa, is looking to “unlock its potential in China” by taking full ownership of its south China joint venture. It is buying a 49% stake from partner Yueda for CNY 310m (£35m). It currently owns 51% of the jv, which operates 252 shops in the south of China, including 93 stores in Shanghai. John Lewis nabs Arcadia director The property director from Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group is leaving the business to take up a role at John Lewis. Chris Harris will join the John Lewis Partnership on 1 March next year as group property director. He will report to group finance director Patrick Lewis. £135m Fosse extension to begin The £135m extension of Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester is poised to begin following the completion of the Crown Estate and Gingko Tree’s acquisition of an adjoining site. The Crown Estate and Gingko Tree, through the Fosse Partnership joint venture, have finalised the purchase of a 12.5-acre site, paving the way for an expansion that has been planned since 2015. Aprirose’s QHotels buyout finalised Aprirose has completed the £525m acquisition of the QHotels business from Bain Capital Credit and Canyon Partners. The portfolio includes 26 four- and five-star regional hotels across the UK, totalling 3,680 beds. Watch out for Physical retail stores on the decline The number of physical retail stores is set to decline significantly, Aviva Investors has warned. The £20bn property manager said in a report that store-based retail will decline in the face of the rise in e-commerce, and that retailers that sell routine purchases would likely be the worst affected. New chips on the high street block New chippy operator Awesome Chips is on the expansion trail. The shop, which only sells double-fried chips – plus 35 different types of sauces, is looking to add to its two existing outlets in London and Leicester by expanding across southern England into major cities. Stiles Harold Williams is agent. New floor space assessments Rightsizing. According to Savills there is a growing acceptance that there is perhaps too much floor space in the wrong locations and this will lead to retailers reassessing the amount of space they have in certain locations. Rightsizing will not just extend to total provision, but also to store sizes in some instances, with subdivision of larger units becoming more common in London and the South East.