Bringing state of the art primary healthcare service provision right to the heart of community shopping centres, real estate adviser Avison Young has been working with Capital & Regional, the UK’s largest shopping centre operator, to be a part of this ground-breaking approach.

At The Mall, Wood Green, and The Exchange in Ilford, Capital & Regional have taken the transformative step of leasing space for primary care uses.

“With so little land available for new build particularly in the London boroughs, and with the demand for healthcare services burgeoning, this is a solution that can change lives,” says Frank Convery, Principal at Avison Young. “Installing primary care services within shopping centres importantly can also drive footfall and increase the through flow of visitors.”

In N22, at The Mall, Wood Green, a 500 sq m diagnostics centre is to open later this year across two ground floor units. Planned by North London Partners in Health, this is the first of 40 diagnostics centres being rolled out across England by the NHS, for community locations such as shopping centres and sports stadia, allowing patients to benefit from earlier diagnostic tests closer to home.

Appointed by Capital & Regional, Avison Young’s specialist primary healthcare team provided feasibility advice including value, rent and lease terms, agreeing a 25-year lease with North London Partners in Health for a long term, state of the art, health hub for the local community.

Designed for the post-Covid era, the new centre will initially offer x-ray, ultrasound, ophthalmology and phlebotomy services to local people, with future plans to increase the range of services that can be offered on site. The initiative forms part of the NHS’s Long Term Plan, as well as the national NHS England and NHS Improvement programme to help accelerate recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine diagnostic testing.

In Ilford, working with development manager Queensberry Real Estate and architects Corstorphine and Wright, Avison Young has agreed a 25-year lease with the North East London NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of Capital & Regional. The 1,819 sq m unit is being transformed into a new medical centre, designed for post-Covid requirements, bringing healthcare and clinical services right into the heart of the community.

“With so much pressure to improve and speed up health provision, GPs and local health trusts in London especially are struggling to find suitable locations for new facilities,” continues Frank. “Thinking creatively and using vacant retail units that have become available as a result of the changing retail landscape, the development of much needed health provision in the heart of the community makes perfect sense. State-of-the-art fit-outs designed by architects at the forefront of this new age, provide the facilities needed in the post-Covid era. This socially-minded use of space is forming an integral part of Capital & Regional’s community shopping centre strategy, which aims to provide its local catchments with convenient, needs-based access to essential services.”