An 85,000 sq ft building on Liverpool’s premier shopping street, housing both TJ Hughes and Boots, is on the market for £7m. Tony McDonough reports
Property investor HIH Invest Real Estate is seeking a buyer for an 85,000 sq ft building in Church Street in Liverpool that is home to both TJ Hughes and Boots.
HIH is asking £7m for the five-storey building which comprises two retail units and is located on the corner of Church Street and Williamson Street facing the River Island fashion outlet and next door to NEXT.
Despite the opening of Liverpool ONE in 2008, Church Street is still regarded as Liverpool’s premier retail thoroughfare and the property is expected to attract significant interest from potential purchasers.
HIH has tasked agents from Cushman and Wakefield with finding a buyer for 9-15 Church Street which offers a sub-basement storage, a basement, a ground floor, and five upper floors.
In 2023, TJs relocated its flagship Liverpool store from London Road, where it had operated for more than a century, into a 63,500 sq ft unit previously occupied by fashion chain H&M. It has a three-year lease paying a rent of £300,000 a year.
In recent times Boots has signed a re-geared lease which will see it occupy the building until June 2029 on a rent of £320,000 a year. A vacant 3,100 sq ft unit facing Williamson Street is included in the offer.
In early October LBN revealed TJs is keen to keep expanding across the UK despite its accounts on Companies House showing sales of £25.7m, lower than the £26.6m reported for 2023. Pre-tax profits also fell from £139,294 to just £50,751.
Writing in the annual report owner Anil Juneja said: “The results for the year have been encouraging after the difficulties of recent years which were affected by the pandemic, as the company returned to profitability and improved levels of trade.”
Anil was credited with saving TJ Hughes when it collapsed into administration in 2011. At that point it was a national chain trading from 57 locations.
He swooped in to prevent the famous name disappearing for good. He relaunched the business from just six outlets. He has since grown this to 16, opening two new stores in 2024. They stretch from Scotland down to Maidstone in the South East of England.