Revitalizing inner city retail?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the West Quay shopping centre development on the city of Southampton. Design/methodology/approach – The West Quay scheme parallels recent high‐profile openings of “regional shopping centres” in city centre locations (e.g. Birmingham's Bullring and Reading's Oracle), and like those centres has had a significant impact on the image and external appeal of the city. Using a combination of material from personal interviews with key players in the Southampton retail scene, statistical data collected by Hammerson (the owners of West Quay), and city centre health check information, the paper offers an assessment of the impact of the regional in‐town centre on Southampton more broadly and on the city centre specifically. Findings – Evidence suggests that the local effects of the centre's opening have not been as detrimental as was feared and that West Quay appears to be generating considerable synergy with Southampton's existing city centre. In addition, there are a number of important developments in the pipeline that owe their raison d'être to West Quay. Research limitations/implications – The paper does not record the views of consumers and a future task must be to document and evaluate consumer's opinions of West Quay and incorporate these insights into future assessments of regional in‐town centres. Originality/value – The paper provides a benchmark of “impacts” to date and a resource for other cities with similar in‐town schemes moving forward.