Ikea to open flagship Oxford Street store at site of shuttered Topshop

Ikea is to buy the flagship Oxford Circus retail outlet occupied by Topshop in a £385m deal next the collapse of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire.

It will give the Swedish home furniture chain a presence at the heart of London’s searching district amid booming demand for its solutions given that lockdown was lifted.

Topshop fell into administration very last November after years of declining sales. The brand name was subsequently purchased by Asos, which declared options to dispose of all physical stores.  

The offer is not the very first time the Swedish home furniture chain has attempted to shift to Oxford Circus. Ikea earlier sought to take around British Dwelling Stores’ site on Oxford Avenue, and had also enquired about a website at a nearby  redevelopment on Cavendish Square.

The offer provides Topshop’s 56-yr tenancy on the street to an close. It moved to Oxford Circus in 1965. 

Directors took around the company which owns the website very last November following the collapse of Sir Philip’s Arcadia vogue empire. They explored both sale and leasing option just before the offer with Ikea was agreed, in accordance to React News.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Team had also been intrigued in the website. But talks stalled because  Nike, an present tenant in the building which will continue to keep its retail outlet open, has a clause in its lease prohibiting a competitor from operating in the former Topshop area. 

Fantastic Portland Estates, Criterion Capital and Ramsbury all enquired about the website with out talks progressing to a really serious stage.

Returns from the sale will be used to reimburse senior loan company Apollo Capital Management. Leftover cash will go intp plugging the £510m deficit in Arcadia’s pension scheme. 

The offer for the Oxford Circus retail outlet follows an arrangement with US genuine estate huge Trammell Crow for Arcadia’s former warehouse in Milton Keynes, as many Arcadia property are on the industry. 

Ikea did not react to a request for remark.