Invista has sold the freehold of its retail development at 1-5 Spurriergate and 1-3 High Ousegate, York, to BP Pension Fund for over £30m, reflecting a net initial yield of below 5 per cent.

LXB Retail, the out-of-town investor floated on the Stock Exchange in October 2009, has made its first two acquisitions, buying 70,000 sq ft of retail space in Greenwich, south London for £18.25m.

Commercial real estate consultant Colliers CRE will post a full year operating loss despite a strong final quarter.

Despite the savage recession, the overall shopping centre development pipeline is only 6.3 per cent lower than at this time last year, according to new research from Colliers CRE.

In King Sturge’s annual Property Predictions, the consultancy’s head of retail, Charles Miller, forecast that vacancy rates would recover from their nadir of around 20 per cent to around 10-12 per cent by the end of 2010.

Jonathan Doughty and Mark Rumfitt are chairing this year's BCSC Shopping Centre Managers' conference.

Chris Igwe, head of retail at CBRE France, gave the final keynote address at Mapic in Cannes.

Land Securities' 220,000-sq ft retail development at One New Change, opposite St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, is now 68 per cent let or in solicitors' hands. Recent retail lettings include All Saints, Reiss, Hobbs and a new Jamie Oliver restaurant concept.

The stand-off between Tesco and Liverpool City Council, St Modwen Developments and Sainsbury's over a £150m development in Liverpool's Great Homer Street area continues as the council and its partners announced they will challenge Tesco's application for a judicial review into their plans.

Tesco BL Properties, a 50/50 joint venture between British Land and Tesco, has completed the refinance of its retail portfolio with a new £315m five-year term loan. The funds were used to repay TBL's existing bank loan on its scheduled maturity date.

Standard Life Investments, jointly advised by Edgerley Simpson Howe and King Sturge, has let the former leisure unit on Hollywood Park, Barrow-in-Furness to Dunelm Soft Furnishings.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has refused planning permission for Centros’ Canal Corridor North development in Lancaster.

Liverpool City Council's Executive Board is meeting on Friday, January 15 to discuss a proposed 600,000-sq ft shopping centre, part of a development framework for the city's Edge Lane Central area.

Despite the savage recession, the overall shopping centre development pipeline is only 6.3% lower than at this time last year, according to new research from Colliers CRE. The agent calculates there is now 43.7m sq ft of shopping centre floorspace either under construction, with permission or in the planning stages in the UK.

Procurement work on a £275m shopping centre in Stoke-on-Trent is due to begin after a development agreement was signed at the end of last year.

Hammerson has taken over The Rock shopping centre development in Bury, Lancashire after its previous developer Thornfield Ventures Limited (TVL) went into administration earlier this week.

One of the most high profile casualties of the recession in the retail property sector, the stalled development of the 500,000-sq ft Trinity Walk shopping centre in Wakefield, got back on track this week after more than six months during which the city centre site has stood half built.

A late rush of deals in the final quarter of 2009 mean that turnover in the shopping centre investment market finished the year 42 per cent up on 2008. According to Cushman & Wakefield £2.065bn of UK shopping centres changed hands during the year.

The UK’s first Legoland Discovery Centre is set to open in Manchester on 22 March. The unique indoor attraction will open in The Trafford Centre’s Barton Square, which currently houses several homeware retailers including Next Home and Habitat.

Retail vacancies are set to fall during 2010, according to King Sturge. But an anticipated surge in development activity from 2012 could lead to a new oversupply of retail space.

Segro – formerly Slough Estates – has completed its withdrawal from the retail property sector with the sale of its interests in two sites in London and York to British Land for £87m.

Aviva Investors has paid £24.4m for the 48,100-sq ft Wren retail park in Torquay.

Land Securities has bought a key development site in Glasgow, opposite its Buchanan Galleries shopping centre.

Great Portland Estates has continued to assemble potential retail development sites on London’s Regent Street with two new deals worth a combined £35m.

British Land and USS have been given the green light for the £100m redevelopment of the Whiteley Village shopping centre near Fareham in Hampshire. Under the plans the existing Tesco superstore will be replaced with a Tesco Extra hypermarket and the existing outlet retail will be demolished, even though it is less than a decade old, and replaced by a convenience-led shopping mall.

Capital Shopping Centres and Land Securities have unveiled a further tranche of retailers who will be taking space at Cardiff’s St David’s 2. The new city centre retail destination is on target for opening in Autumn 2009.

The UK is officially out of recession, with the final three months of 2009 showing positive growth after six straight quarters of decline.