TV chef and restaurant entrepreneur Jamie Oliver has given a huge boost to Park Street, according to Richard Saunders, retail director at the Bristol office of commercial property specialists Colliers International.
The February opening of Jamie's Italian Restaurant on a corner site that had formerly been Blackwells Bookshop was a landmark deal that has proved to be a catalyst for interest in Park Street, he declared.
It was Mr Saunders' job to find a national operator for the Blackwells Bookshop to ensure that Park Street didn’t follow in the footsteps of many other retail centres across the country with a steadily declining quality of shop.
He said: “Until Jamie Oliver opened we were seeing a decline in the area and Blackwell’s closing was the latest in a series of closures. Park Street is the jewel in the crown of Bristol ’s independent shopping district and it was important to get the street back on track.
“The buzz of having an internationally recognised chef choose Park Street has led to a return to optimism with greater footfall and the Park Street atmosphere is back, which is good for shoppers, good for retailers and good for Bristol.”
