Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
TK Maxx moving in to Royal Mail Arena Premises
Following the success of their Wood Green Branch, TK Maxx are planning to open a new store in Harringay.
With the vacant space created in the Arena Retail by the departure of the Royal Mail, TK Maxx have reached agreement with Arena's owners, Coal Pension Property Ltd, to occupy the former Royal Mail space and to add a mezzanine floor to it. This will create a store of just under 24,000 square feet (2,200 Sq m), which is just under 15% of the total retail space at the Arena shopping Park.
"Big Labels, Small Prices" store TK Maxx opened in 1994 and is part of TJX Companies, which also owns Homesense and Marshalls. In October 2011 it had 261 stores across the UK and Ireland. The company claim that a typical store has 50,000 items in stock and receives about 10,000 new items a week.
In a recent mini poll by The Guardian newspaper, TK Maxx was the overwhelming favourite in in a face-off with bargain basement competitor Matalan. TK Maxx took 68% of the 1,169 votes compared with Matalan's 18%.
One survey respondent commented:
"Had some fantastic bargains in TK Maxx on homewares. Dartington crystal decanters and jugs typically down from £70-£80 to £10-£15. Great for gifts (especially if you "accidentally" leave the original maker's price on). Good deals on Tefal, Le Creuset etc."
I'm not sure TK Maxx would be my first choice as tenant for the premises, but with John Lewis unlikley to move in, I guess I'll have to welcome the opportunity of bagging some bargain basement clothes and Homeware
Good for the Area?
Under the banner LCSP, local resident Ian Sygrave has submitted an objection to the planning application because of the loss of the Royal Mail Sorting office which is part of the whole change.
For my part, I'm hoping that the planning committee will take a very careful look at the impact that a store of this size will have on traffic. Opening a TK Maxx isn't just adding 15% more retail space, it's adding 24,000 square feet of retail space that will likely be very well used.
Have the Council required a transport impact study to be done? Remember how they totally missed this when Sainsbury's expanded? Remember the chaos the ensued?
A travel plan submitted by the former Arena owners in 2007 prior to the opening of Fitness First estimated that retail space generates six times the traffic than that generated by leisure activities such as a gym.
The current planning application from the Arena landlord says:
The application premises are located in a sustainable location with good public transport links located in close proximity to the site. In addition there is a large resident catchment population thereby enabling local residents to either walk or cycle to the application premises.
Really? I wonder what proportion of their customers will live in walking distance and how many will cycle? Has anyone calculated the likely extra number of car trips it will generate on local roads?
So, a cautious welcome to TK Maxx, but I'd like some reassurance that this time round the traffic impact is being properly looked at and the Council aren't sleep walking their way in to this again.
Tags for Forum Posts: arena shopping park, t k maxx
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Joe Bailey on
-
Perhaps if the battle to save the sorting office has been lost and there is going to be yet another shop in the retail park (read godforsaken hole), then the council might consider forcing the owners to levy a parking fee equivalent to the going local rate for street parking, for each and every space... No free parking, less cars? Might that help? Not that I'm in favour of paying to park as a general theme, but something needs doing about the arena!
-
Permalink Reply by Maddy on
-
I love TKMaxx and use it a lot, but I really don't think a unit of this size belongs in the Arena. The Wood Green store is always very busy, and undoubtedly people would travel here especially to use it. I can't see it having anything but a negative impact on an already choked-up area.(On the other hand, we Ladderites would probably no longer go to Wood Green TK- I wonder if they realise how much of their customer base would shift elsewhere.)
The whole Arena estate was mis-conceived, badly designed (they could have had a crossroads and new entrance opposite the Endymion junction instead of having to turn onto Green Lanes and off again),sneaked through planning under pretty much false pretences and seems set to swell out of all proportion to its situation in a residential area.
-
Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
-
The whole Arena estate was mis-conceived, badly designed
Yes, and doubtless approved by the local council
And the most consistently useful thing about the whole Arena site is the Parcels Collection Office, now threatened with closure.
-
Permalink Reply by David Schmitz on
-
It's important to bear in mind the fact that the N4 Arena sorting office cannot be saved, because the lease to the post office is about to run out and because that lease is not protected under the security of tenure provisions in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
Where the Post Office is wrong is in its decision to site the replacement sorting office in Holloway. This will cause a great deal of inconvenience to people living within the N4 postal district; hence our petition to keep these services local to N4 which can be accessed on http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/parcelgreenlanes
This campaign is being run in parallel with a petition to save the N8 sorting office in Tottenham Lane (this one can be saved) and to prevent that service from being moved to Holloway as well. That petition can be accessed on http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/parcelhornsey
As to the merits or otherwise of the proposed new use or users of the Arena site, I cannot make any comment because I will probably be taking part in the Planning Committee's consideration of the application, although of course I'll be reading the postings here along with the other material which I'll be receiving.
David Schmitz
Lib Dem Councillor for Harringay Ward
-
Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
-
Wow i have just seen what could be the new sorting office on the map. It is miles away!
-
-
TW: I don't think its yet generally appreciated just how inconvenient this will be for everyone in N4 and N8.
I can't see the RM offering us an alternative site inside the Post Code. They probably need a larger floor space for parcels storing racks than the vacant shop in the Coliseum!
-
Permalink Reply by Bethany Burrow Atherton on
-
In addition to the inconvenience of where it is, there is also the issue of how many people it will serve. Many a time I've had to queue up at the Arena sorting office on a Saturday morning (probably its busiest time, as it's the only time a lot of people can get there) for about half an hour because there are so many people wanting to collect things. So, in addition to having to traipse to a different area to pick up a parcel, we'll probably have to wait for a long time to be served, which makes it even more annoying.
-
Permalink Reply by Hugh on
-
Thanks for the clarification, David. It's certainly worth fighting to keep collection services local. I'm behind that. It's helpful to have confirmation that the Arena office cannot be saved, but that we're talking about keeping it local somewhere else. Exactly why in my mind, it has nothing to do with this TK Maxx issue.
-
-
Exactly, Rob. In fact there may be a range of solutions that may even end up being better than the one we have now.
-
-
I imagine the reason that "we" don't utilise the local Post office as a collection point, is that it's not up to us to elect. It's Royal Mail who decide these things and we can only attempt to influence them.
The larger point is that a parcels collection point requires large storage space. This requirement is unlikely to be met at the local post office.
Realistically, its got to go on an industrial estate: like the one they're leaving and like the (too) distant alternative that Royal Mail are intending (towards Tufnell Park).
What's needed is a parcels collection point (with attendant racks) on an industrial estate, within the N4 postcode. I understand both local MPs are on the case, but they could probably use a show of public support.
-
-
Can you imagine the length of queues if the local post office was used as the collection point. They are bad enough as it is.
One way of solving the problem is if deliveries were done at a time that suits the average person, say between 6pm and 10pm at night and between 7am and 9am in the morning and all day weekends. But I guess that would be too much to ask of Royal Mail.
-
-
Yes TW, the Royal Mail needs to be thinking about how to become more convenient for their customers, not less.
At a time when the parcels business is booming - due to on-line sales - the RM intends to do something that will aggravate practically all their customers in N4 and N8!
The threatened pass-the-parcel move seems to have more to do with cost cutting than with building a business that, with only a little help, shows every sign of growing in the future.
The RM cost cutting logic, if carried on ad absurdum, would have a single, giant, parcels collection point for all of London - or just one for all of the UK. At some point, such centralisation ceases being a service to the public.
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next ›
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
