Thinking about opening a shop in Bath? Part 2 – “Location”

Following my previous post on this topic, you would be forgiven for thinking that it is not economically viable to open a retail shop in a central location in Bath. This is just not the case. Provided you can find the right property it can be extremely lucrative to trade in Bath - one of the UK’s most popular cities.

In Bath the prime retail locations are generally located on a “spine” of the city that extends from Milsom Street down to Southgate.  In general terms the rents for shops located on this spine are higher than those elsewhere reflecting the high level of footfall. Prime rents are currently £200ITZA and are predicted to rise during 2015 due to lack of available vacant retail space.

If you take a walk from the top of Milsom Street to the train station you will see that trading on the spine is mainly (but not exclusively) the preserve of the national or regional retailer. On this spine there are also hot and cold spots where the footfall and the rental rates vary from the headline prime. The location of the spots changes over time depending on a variety of factors.

Elsewhere in the city centre it becomes more complicated.  Just because for example, a property is located a handful of meters away from the central spine it does not automatically mean that it is in a good location for your business. Don’t be fooled by the high asking rents on certain properties and assume this translates to an excellent location.

Other locations do exist in the centre of Bath that offer excellent opportunities for the well informed retailer to trade from at a fraction of the costs paid by some occupiers trading from prime locations.

Enlisting the services of a local chartered surveyor can not only help with understanding the dynamics in the city of Bath, and with understanding the types of retail offer that work in specific locations but can also give you access to valuable “off-market” opportunities.

As part of this firms search and lease negotiation service we actively explore these “off-market” opportunities which are accessed via both our extensive contact list and our proprietary search procedures. The Bath retail market has seen a lot of demand from retailers in 2014 with no indication of this demand abating in 2015.

With local expert help you can find and make an informed decision when deciding on the right location for your business. Provided your business plan is solid, the retail offer attractive and you don’t make costly mistakes when negotiating a lease you can make a lot of money from opening a shop in Bath