13.07.2020 Market traders at the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre
A spokesperson for Delancey commented:
“We are very much aware of the difficulties that the recent lock-down period has caused for our traders at the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre and for the local community. The management team at the shopping centre are proud to have played their part in keeping the shopping centre open for essential services over the entire period and we are pleased to have delivered the virtual Community Hub that has been a great way for us all to stay engaged and in touch with each other.”
“At the beginning of the lock-down in March we immediately moved to waive all rent and service charge payments for all our independent traders in the shopping centre and to maintain this 100% discount to closure of the shopping centre in September. However, and following discussions with Urban Space Management (our tenant and operator of the market,) whilst they were fully committed to reopening the market and were grateful to have their 100% rent cut, they would struggle to pass this on to market traders in the form of zero rent and still meet its ongoing essential operating costs, particularly if fewer market traders opened.”
“Now that the market has re-opened, we have agreed to cover all Urban Space Management’s essential operating costs, enabling them to continue to provide all necessary services to keep the market open and for traders to directly benefit from the 100% rental discount. This decision has been made following lengthy discussions between ourselves and Urban Space Management to ensure maximum support is available for those businesses most in need. As a result, we fully expect to see all market traders open and trading at the Elephant each day until the closure of the shopping centre.”
“We can confirm that we continue to target the end of September this year for final closure of the shopping centre ahead of redevelopment and want to maintain as much certainty as possible for our traders in these otherwise uncertain times. We will be communicating full details of how the closure will be delivered, including all details of the traders who are relocating within the immediate area, in the forthcoming weeks.”
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