Beverley’s Flemingate shopping centre welcomes 1.5m visitors in first year of trading

As of November 4th, Beverley’s £120m Flemingate shopping centre has been trading for one full year, in which time it has welcomed more than 1.5m visitors.

The footfall figure was revealed as managers of the 24 retail and leisure brands and independent operators, which make up the Flemingate centre, celebrated the first anniversary of the development.

Hull-based regeneration company Wykeland Group, developer and owner of the centre, said it was delighted with how strongly Flemingate had grown in its first year, with a series of retailers, restaurants and cafés joining the founding operators.

David Donkin, Wykeland property director, said: “Flemingate has had an excellent first year in which the centre has developed strongly, with a series of leading retail and leisure brands coming on board to complement the opening line-up.

“We’re pleased to have recorded more than 1.5m visitors over the past year, with footfall growing consistently. In fact, last week Flemingate set a new record with more than 40,000 people coming to the centre and the numbers are sure to continue to climb in the busy shopping period running up to Christmas.

“Flemingate took a decade to deliver and is now paying dividends for Beverley and the region, creating more than 700 jobs, attracting major brands that could not previously be accommodated in the town, and introducing so many much-needed new facilities, including the Premier Inn hotel and Parkway Cinema.

“We have always seen this as a long-term legacy project and, a year in, it’s clear Flemingate is making Beverley a better place to live, work, visit and invest.”

Centre manager Graham Tait added: “We’re celebrating our first anniversary on a really positive note. We feel people in Beverley and further afield are embracing Flemingate, as reflected in the growing footfall, participation in our events and activities, positive media coverage and comments on social media.

“Our footfall is growing strongly and the picture is of increased trading across the board. Every new brand that opens at Flemingate generates more footfall, customers and sales for the stores, restaurants and cafés, so we’re looking forward to a very exciting and busy shopping period in the run up to Christmas.”

The Flemingate development includes a new purpose-built campus, providing an improved location and facilities for East Riding College and contributing to a 10% increase in student recruitment at the Beverley site this year.

Flemingate features a host of high street names such as Debenhams, H&M, River Island, Peacocks, Superdrug, toy retailer The Entertainer and Wilko as well as the multi-brand retailer Outfit.

These are complemented by independent shops such as fashion store Bolo, jeweller Guest and Philips and homewares retailer Baytree Interiors.

Food and drink outlets range from Costa Coffee, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Greggs, Patisserie Valerie, Starbucks and Subway to locally owned and managed independents Deli No. 1 and Riva Lounge.

The £120m Flemingate development is Beverley’s largest ever regeneration scheme.