Mahon Point Shopping Centre
Mahon Point Shopping Centre in Cork is Munster’s second largest shopping destination. The centre comprises of approximately 375,000 sq ft of retail space that is anchored by Debenhams and Tesco. Other tenants include Next, Zara, River Island and La Senza. The centre also has a range of restaurants, café’s and leisure facilities including a 13 screen Omniplex cinema.
The Brief
Savills has provided property management services for Mahon Point Shopping Centre since it opened in 2005. Our responsibilities include collection of rent, service charges and insurance, implementing and managing the centre service charge budget in conjunction with the centre management team, and dealing with day to day tenant issues.
Our Solution
Savills has a proven track record for delivering the highest standard of service – our approach to this instruction involved developing a good working relationship with the client and their tenants. We place a high emphasis on regular, comprehensive reporting to our clients and maintaining communication which enables us to understand their requirements and provide satisfactory solutions. Building strong relationships with tenants from the beginning has enabled us to fully understand the challenges they face in the current economic environment, and we can therefore provide advice to our client to assist tenant survival.
How We Added Value
We have added value for our client in a number of ways. One of our greatest achievements has been a reduction in the centre service charge budget – in early 2009, having recognised the cash flow challenges that were facing tenants and landlords; we proactively reviewed all of our service charge budgets and achieved savings by negotiating lower prices for provision of services by contractors. In Mahon Point shopping centre we negotiated savings that reduced the service charge budget by 9.37%. For 2010, the budget has been revised downwards by a further 2.42%.One of our main priorities for the management of a centre such as Mahon Point is to maintain footfall through the use of marketing and other initiatives. In March 2009 we launched a style advisor service that is free to Mahon Point shopping centre customers. Up to the end of December 2009 this service generated €234,601 in sales for the centre.Value is also provided to our clients through mall commercialisation – in 2009 a total of €230,223 was achieved through mall commercialisation in the shopping centre.
