In 2001 Ashfield Land acquired the former Maples Furniture Store in Clifton. The case study sets out how Ashfield Land acquired the landmark building and successfully refurbished it into a flagship restaurant, leisure and retail scheme.

During the late 1990’s the once vibrant retail area of Queen’s Road, Clifton, suffered a decline primarily through the closure of key retail stores including Dingles and the Maples building. Maples was a well-established furniture retail store that had been trading from the property in Clifton since the 1950s. However, changing market conditions meant that at the end of the 1990’s trading was no longer viable and the store closed.

The building had been available in the marketplace for some considerable time and many parties had made conditional offers to acquire the property but all failed to deliver a robust planning strategy.

Utilising our extensive equity resources, Ashfield Land were able to put forward an unconditional proposal which was subsequently accepted by the freehold owners.

Following acquisition we then set out to achieve a planning permission for a mix of uses. A professional team was assembled and a planning consent obtained for restaurant, health and fitness and retail use.

The scheme was renamed The Clifton Pavilion and following a marketing exercise the building was let to Le Monde Restaurant, Cannons Health & Fitness, Fresh & Wild and New Heights.

The development was a key driver in the renaissance of the Queen’s Road area which is now a thriving retail and restaurant location and has attracted many national operators.