Hines, the international real estate firm has announced that Sky, Europes leading media and entertainment company, has chosen to open one of its first bricks and mortar retail shops at 229-249 Buchanan Street, Glasgow. Opening on 6th May, the new Sky shop will occupy a 2,500 square feet unit and bring together Sky Mobile, Sky Broadband and Sky TV all in one place. The shop will include a dedicated Customer Hub' encouraging new customers to speak to advisors about the latest Sky innovations while existing customers can receive advice for their current products. The shop will also include an iSmash service facility, providing customers with repair and maintenance services on site.
The new shops are the first time Sky has had a full retail presence that covers all its business areas - Sky Mobile, Sky Broadband and Sky TV - and the first-time potential customers can fully sample the Sky Q experience.
The shop on Buchanan Street, Glasgow, will be the first shop of its kind in Scotland, focusing on customer experience alongside Sky's products. The shop will be open plan to allow easy and safe interaction between advisors and customers.
All Sky shops will operate in line with the Government's Covid-19 safety measures, including strict social distancing, mandatory facemasks and hand sanitiser available across the shop.
The building, which has a Grade A listed fa ade, is located in the heart of Glasgow's retail core, directly opposite the city's premier shopping centre Buchanan Galleries and immediately adjacent to Buchanan Quarter.
Chris Stylianou, Chief Operating Officer, Sky UK and Ireland, said: Since announcing our move into bricks and mortar retail we've opened shops in Liverpool, Leeds and Gateshead - now we're bringing the Sky experience to shoppers in Scotland with our Glasgow shop.
We already have deep roots in Scotland with many of our colleagues working across our campuses in Livingston, Dunfermline, and Glasgow. With its renowned shopping district in the heart of the city, it made sense that the iconic Buchanan Street in Glasgow became host to our first shop in the country. We'll bring service, innovation and convenience in one place, under one roof, to give shoppers a brand new way to experience Sky
Sharon Bloodworth, Director, Retail Asset Management, Hines UK, said: Sky clearly recognise the value of personal interaction with their customers and the selection of our Buchanan Street asset as the home for one of their new stores demonstrates the strength of the location. This commitment from Sky is a significant vote of confidence during challenging times for everyone in the retail sector, and we look forward to their doors opening to customers.
Hines acquired 229-249 Buchanan Street in April 2016 as part of its investment mandate from Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) which targets prime high street retail assets across Europe.
The UK Hines team is currently active in the office, retail, student housing and logistics sectors, managing a combined UK property portfolio worth more than £3bn and located in London and key regional cities.
Savills and CBRE acted for Hines.
For further information please contact:
Kabir Parhar
07976070953
Kabir.parhar@sky.uk
About Sky
Sky is Europe's leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Across six countries, we connect our 23.4 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news and arts including our own award-winning original content.
Our technology, including the market leading Sky Q, connects people to everything they love - with entertainment from Sky TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, and apps like Spotify, YouTube, BBC Sounds, Highbrow, Peloton, Fiit, and more, in one place, easy. Our streaming service NOW brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service. Through our new B2B broadband provider, Sky Connect, we offer superfast broadband with business-grade 4G back-up to small businesses in the UK.
Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, Sky Arts is the UK's only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service, brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which will open in 2022, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years.
We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We're committed to being Europe's first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 and we're proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we've been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity and we've set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation. We're also committed to investing £30million across our markets over three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.
About Hines
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 225 cities in 25 countries. Hines has approximately $144.1 billion of assets under management, including $75.5 billion for which Hines serves as investment manager, including non-real estate assets, and $68.6 billion for which Hines provides third-party property-level services. The firm has
