Land Securities will not say anything about its latest shopping centre's first month of trading until it has published its annual results next Wednesday.
However, the buzz around the development, the only sizeable new shopping centre to open in the United Kingdom for more than a year, has been considerable.
And Trinity Leeds appears to embody all the trends that are influencing shopping centre design in the UK, one of the most mature markets in the world for malls.
A fifth of the space is taken up with restaurants and cafes, there's an art-house cinema opening, the centre has free Wi-Fi so you can browse online or use Google's Shopper app as you shop and it is brimming with international brands, both British and American.
Far from being positioned in a greenfield site, the £378 million (Dh2.15bn) "centre" is actually a redevelopment of an existing downtown area. Its name comes from the adjacent Holy Trinity church.
It opened with 90 per cent of its units let and a further 5 per cent under consideration. Its success, its owners say, is that it offers space of a quality and style that has not yet been available in Leeds.
Victoria's Secret, a US lingerie retailer, will open its first UK store outside London in one of the huge new double-height units.
"Victoria's Secret wouldn't have come without those units. But we are not reinventing a city that had problems here, we are making a strong city even stronger," says Ashley Blake, the director of retail portfolio management. Land Securities notes that increasingly retailers want to go where there is proven success. One of Land's next proposed redevelopments is likely to be in the university town of Oxford, in central England, which has poor shopping facilities for a city full of students, tourists, international visitors and a large middle-class population.
"Lots of retailers want to be there but there isn't space for them to expand. Land Securities and the other big shopping centre developers don't bother with struggling high streets or towns in decline. That is because most successful retailers focus on strong locations with dense populations," Mr Blake says.
"We are seeing people looking to redevelop and reinvest in strong locations, rather than in weaker locations."
And they can only do that if the retailers sign up to schemes in advance, sometimes three to four years before opening.
"If you can't pre-let a new shopping centre, the risk you are taking on is enormous. We didn't start work on Trinity until it hit 40 per cent pre-let but you can only do that in good locations. In poor locations no one can take the risk that it will only be part-empty."
Neither Land Securities, nor Hammerson, nor rivals Westfield will touch what Mr Blake calls "the stuff in the middle" - the middle-ranking centres and high streets.
"That's where the market needs the smaller developers but at the moment they haven't got the funding."
And when the cycle recovers?
"We mustn't make the mistake of the 1980s where we just bunged more shopping centres into smaller towns.
"These towns, like Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire and Bury, outside Manchester, are really suffering now," says Mr Blake.
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Countries offering golden visas
UK
Innovator Founder Visa is aimed at those who can demonstrate relevant experience in business and sufficient investment funds to set up and scale up a new business in the UK. It offers permanent residence after three years.
Germany
Investing or establishing a business in Germany offers you a residence permit, which eventually leads to citizenship. The investment must meet an economic need and you have to have lived in Germany for five years to become a citizen.
Italy
The scheme is designed for foreign investors committed to making a significant contribution to the economy. Requires a minimum investment of €250,000 which can rise to €2 million.
Switzerland
Residence Programme offers residence to applicants and their families through economic contributions. The applicant must agree to pay an annual lump sum in tax.
Canada
Start-Up Visa Programme allows foreign entrepreneurs the opportunity to create a business in Canada and apply for permanent residence.
Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature
By Marion Rankine
Melville House
OPENING FIXTURES
Saturday September 12
Crystal Palace v Southampton
Fulham v Arsenal
Liverpool v Leeds United
Tottenham v Everton
West Brom v Leicester
West Ham v Newcastle
Monday September 14
Brighton v Chelsea
Sheffield United v Wolves
To be rescheduled
Burnley v Manchester United
Manchester City v Aston Villa
It's Monty Python's Crashing Rocket Circus
To the theme tune of the famous zany British comedy TV show, SpaceX has shown exactly what can go wrong when you try to land a rocket.
The two minute video posted on YouTube is a compilation of crashes and explosion as the company, created by billionaire Elon Musk, refined the technique of reusable space flight.
SpaceX is able to land its rockets on land once they have completed the first stage of their mission, and is able to resuse them multiple times - a first for space flight.
But as the video, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, demonstrates, it was a case if you fail, try and try again.
AS%20WE%20EXIST
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Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The Limehouse Golem
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth
Three stars
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Brief scores
Barcelona 2
Pique 36', Alena 87'
Villarreal 0
The 12 Syrian entities delisted by UK
Ministry of Interior
Ministry of Defence
General Intelligence Directorate
Air Force Intelligence Agency
Political Security Directorate
Syrian National Security Bureau
Military Intelligence Directorate
Army Supply Bureau
General Organisation of Radio and TV
Al Watan newspaper
Cham Press TV
Sama TV
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
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The Way It Was: My Life with Frank Sinatra by Eliot Weisman and Jennifer Valoppi
Hachette Books
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.