Insider Media Limited

London & County (Nottingham) has acquired the FH Mall in Nottingham city centre. In the city's second major property deal in two days, the new owner said it was planning on revamping the FH Mall site - including converting vacant floors into student accommodation - and changing its name.

The FH Mall will revert back to its original name of Flying Horse Walk, London & Country confirmed.

It added that it planned to convert two vacant floors above the arcade into student housing, comprising 16 rooms.

The shopping centre was purchased from UBS Global Asset Management (UK) for an undisclosed sum.

Simon Blair of London & County said: "We are constantly looking at investment opportunities all over the UK and the FH Mall was offered to us just before Christmas last year.

"We feel the mall has huge potential. We have big plans for change and as a starting point, we are intending to revert back to the old name of the Flying Horse Walk, which is how it is best known.

"We are also going to be revamping the look of the mall, both inside and out and we hope to be reinstating the iconic white horse on the Poultry Street entrance. When the previous owners rebranded the mall, they tried to make it contemporary, but we feel it has not really worked and instead, the exterior looks very clinical. We now want to put our own stamp on it."

The shopping arcade, which is home to stores including Vivienne Westwood, Atomic and Berketex, originally opened in 1988.

It has attracted a new retailer, George Thornton Art, which has moved from its base in Hockley.

"I see great potential for the mall now," said Blair. "When you look at Nottingham on the whole, the city has always been right up there on the retail rankings. Things have slipped over recent years, but with the current plans to update the Victoria Centre and Westfield getting ready to move here, we now feel we have to up our game."

The Flying Horse Walk is being marketed by Nottingham property agency FHP.

The news comes the day after shopping centre operator Westfield announced it was to turn its back on Nottingham after selling its 75 per cent share in the Broadmarsh shopping centre to rival Capital Shopping Centres (CSC).

The £55m deal means that CSC, owner of the city's Victoria Shopping Centre, will now be the dominant force in Nottingham's retail sector controlling nearly 1.5m sq ft of space.

Westfield, which had secured planning permission to extend the Broadmarsh to 1.1 million sq ft, has entered into exclusive arrangements with the Whitgift Foundation to redevelop the Whitgift Centre in Croydon.

The Australian-owned property company said the deal represented "an increased emphasis by the group towards investment in larger, iconic centres."

Steven Lowy, Westfield co-chief executive officer, said: "Today's announcement is a further step in that direction as we re-direct capital and our management capacity to larger scale development opportunities that we believe will generate better long-term returns for the group."