Castle Quarter in Norwich city centre has been acquired by private clients of asset manager Maritime Capital, with the sale completing in December.
Castle Quarter opened in 1993 as Castle Mall, Norwich’s first indoor shopping mall.
It was designed by local architect Michael Innes to fit perfectly beneath the Norman castle. In 2019 it rebranded as Castle Quarter and began the transformation from a traditional shopping centre into the city’s leading social, leisure and lifestyle destination.
It currently has a 50/50 split between retail and leisure/entertainment tenants. Despite challenging times for the high street, Castle Quarter has retained its pre-covid footfall levels and continued to attract an interesting mix of tenants, thanks to its ongoing evolution.
Maritime Capital is an independent, family-owned and run asset management business, based in Richmond. Founded by Toby Hunter and Max Hunter in 2013, over the past 13 years, the business has transacted more than £1.5 billion in property investments, gathering a breadth of knowledge and adding significant value to its clients’ property portfolios.
“We chose to purchase Castle Quarter because it has so much potential,” explains Max Hunter, head of asset management at Maritime Capital.
“We were very impressed by the transformation that the centre has undertaken over the past five or so years, moving from traditional shopping centre with a leisure element, to now being a vibrant and growing social, leisure and lifestyle destination.
“But there is still so much to be done to ensure that Castle Quarter is the first place that people think about when planning a daytime trip into Norwich or an evening out.
“We already have an exciting retail mix, with everyone from well-known high street brands such as Boots, TXMaxx and Trespass, to specialist independent stores like Itaewon Korean Supermarket, Ernie’s Zero Waste and Keiko,” continues Max.
“And our leisure and entertainment offering is fantastic, with Escape Hunt, Vue Cinema, Hot Pod Yoga, Drive Lounge, ArrowHeadz, and many more, all under one roof. Our plan is to bring in even more entertainment brands to cement Castle Quarter’s position as the number one leisure venue in Norfolk.”
“Whilst it is too early to share our detailed plans for Castle Quarter, we can say that we are committed to investing in the centre to further improve what it has to offer both leisure and retail customers. Our goal as a business is to add genuine value to the properties in which we invest and to the communities which they are based,” Max concludes.
Castle Quarter has become well known over recent years for its year-round programme of inclusive, free of charge, family friendly events.
Centre manager Rob Bradley said: “We are delighted that Maritime Capital have confirmed that they are firmly behind our approach to creating events and initiatives that are accessible for everyone, including making space available in the centre for charities and community groups,” says Rob. “We are looking forward to creating even more reasons for people to visit Castle Quarter over the next 12 months.”
