Mill Gate is the heart of Bury town centre and footfall has been resilient compared to the UK average. Since the start of the pandemic we have been able to welcome over 21 new businesses to the scheme – a mix of national retail, independents, and leisure occupiers. In that same period existing tenants have committed to longer term leases with 38 renewals and regears being completed.

Not only has Mill Gate continually sought to improve its retail offering but we also engaged with the needs of the wider community ensuring that the centre is a destination for all. In addition to the retail lettings secured we were also able to attract non-retail occupiers with new tenants including Bury Football College, Job Centre and Post Office.

Led by asset managers RivingtonHark the fantastic centre team also found innovative and creative ways to activate vacant space and engage with the community. Mill Gate was the first UK shopping Centre to provide TikTok turf, an exclusive space for TikTokkers and content editors to visit and make original viral video content. The aim was to bring the online trend to an offline experience in a physical place. It has proved to be a great success and brought a really popular activity in the centre.

Mark Harvey, Head of Asset Management at RivingtonHark said: “We have welcomed many exciting new tenants throughout the year and brought some great innovation to the centre to ensure it is relevant and aligned to the needs of the community. There is a really positive feeling around the scheme and I am looking forward to building on this in 2022.”