Shopping mall regeneration

In 2021 Thrive was invited to explore the transformation of an empty Debenham’s store consisting of 6,600 Sq M of redundant and underutilised space over three floors within the Reading Oracle shopping centre. The client’s objective to increase visitor footfall and dwell time, help stabilise and support existing retail and hospitality businesses and provide Hammerson with a viable rental income.

Led by research to better understand local community needs, the Thrive team developed a curated community hub concept which included a food market and communal dining offer using produce sourced from within 25 miles of Reading, an upcycling and retail market stall area to incubate and develop new local retail businesses, a co-working space with meeting rooms that also tied into a community wellness offering enabling local therapists to use the rooms out of hours to offer affordable community wellness and a digital entertainment and performance space including DJ booth and recording studio to extend the asset usage into the evening.

Alongside community engagement and concept creation the work included detailed build cost and capex analysis to repurpose the existing space alongside a detailed financial model of all elements of the proposition modelling footfall, spend per head and revenue generation.


Client: Hammerson – Mark Bourgeois and Kathryn Malloch

Consultant Team: Concept exploration & design Rebecca Whittington & Rhodri Samuel, Architects Phase3 Tyen Masten & Yen Goh

Collaborators/Specialist advisors:  Co-working: Gavin Eddy, Forward Space; Markets: Tabitha Clayson, Frome market curator; Digital: Jan Bunge, Squint Opera; Retail and events: Vickie Hayward, Company Place; Food halls: Nick Johnson Altrincham market & Makie Mayor food court, Regeneration: Anthony Davis, 3Adapt; Community engagement: Michael Thomson

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