By Sandra Halliday, Fashion Network
Foot Locker will open what it is describing as a global flagship at the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street as it prepares to move into an almost 14,000 sq ft space at street and basement levels next to Marble Arch tube station. The site was previously occupied by fast food chain KFC and has been extensively refurbished.
It's not so many years ago that the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street was less than appealing from a shopping point of view. Once shoppers walked past Selfridges and reached the flagship Marks & Spencer store, that was about it. But intensive development has transformed this end of the street and Foot Locker’s new store will benefit from being in a prime position directly opposite the Primark flagship, which is itself a massive footfall driver.
It will also benefit from the expected surge in visitors to the West End once the new Elizabeth tube line opens later this year.
The trainer and sportswear specialist has reportedly been looking for a large site as this end of Oxford Street for some time with business booming for the company across the street as a whole. And it originally had planned to close one of its two existing Oxford Street stores once the new flagship is up and running. But it now looks like the two existing locations, near Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus, could stay open.
The company that advised the landlord on the new site said letting the space to Foot Locker “is a significant milestone for repositioning the retail and leisure offer at Marble Arch.”
It also said it's in talks about the remaining 6,000 sq ft nearby and that in the next few years, a further 50,000 sq ft of new retail and leisure space will be in development close to Marble Arch.
