LEICESTER | Highcross - Shires Shopping Centre extension

[Lears City]

An extension to the current Shires Shopping Centre, creating a retail complex of 1.2 million square feet. In addition there will be a Cinema de Lux, Restaurant Quarter, 7 storey car park and apartments.

image hosted on flickr


Read all about it on the Highcross Leicester website.

[braunstone geezer]

thread 1

[PAC_MAN]

For those that dont know, here is the webcam link to the new shires extension. Soon to be called "Leicester Highcross"

http://www.theshires.co.uk/webcams.shtm

[PAC_MAN]

Adding to what Lears has already started. The new shires will be completed
in "Autumn 2008"

[Leicity82]

September 2008 to be precise.

John Lewis is to be given the keys to their building this Septemebr, thus giving them 1 year to decorate, etc the 4 dtorey store - to hold John Lewis' full range of items if i rememeber correctly.

[PAC_MAN]

Who are the other major stores taking up the rest of the space?

From what I know, half the development will be in an enclosed shopping centre - a natural extension to the shires - where more of the smaller department stores will be based. Then the rest is more like a major highstreet, with larger department stores, the cinema and eateries and bristos.

[ranny fash]

the pics make it look pretty good actually. could have made the roofs look a bit more interesting but then we walk on the ground and not in the air.

will be interesting to see if it ends up looking exactly the same as broadmarsh when both are finished

[Leicity82]

Originally Posted by PAC_MAN

Who are the other major stores taking up the rest of the space?

From what I know, half the development will be in an enclosed shopping centre - a natural extension to the shires - where more of the smaller department stores will be based. Then the rest is more like a major highstreet, with larger department stores, the cinema and eateries and bristos.

So far for sure:

Anchor: John Lewis - joining the present Debenhams and Rackhams (House of Fraser). I read somewhere it will be the newest John Lewis store in Europe when open and the biggest outside of London, for a while anyway.

Flagship stores:
Zara,
Reiss,
River Island,
New Look and
Next (to be one of their largest city centre stores)

Other relocated stores:
Republic (in Shires at the moment) and H+M (currently in Haymarket Shopping Centre)

Cinema De Lux (the interesting metal clad building)

Eateries/dining:
Wagamama
Yo! Sushi
Handade Burger Co.

Everything else still seems hush, hush, as there are still 35 odd stores and loads of restaurant/bars etc to fill.

[Lears City]

The shiny metallic surface is now being added to the Cinema de Lux complex. It will look very impressive when complete and reminds me a bit of that impressive Selfridges building in Birmingham.

[Leicity82]

Here are some recent photos I took of the glass and metal cladding (recently posted on the Leicester thread):

Where the John Lewis store (left) and cinema (right) meet - the glass and the metal cladding can be distinctly identified:


A similar shot but showing more of the buildings:


The new footbridge on the John Lewis side:


The cinema so far from afar; you can see the interesting shape:


Construction on the new car park opposite:

[flange]

Yo! Sushi, Wagamama and Handmade Burger company to open in Leicester

Friday August 3 2007

Three of the UK's leading restaurants are to open in the centre of Leicester for the first time. YO! Sushi, Wagamama and The Handmade Burger Company have all reserved their places at Highcross Leicester, the city's new destination for eating and dining.

The three newcomers will be opening in the city's new 'Covent Garden-style' restaurant quarter - a thriving new focus for day into night-time entertainment being created by the joint owners and developers, Hammerson and Hermes, at the heart of the £350 million mixed-use Highcross Leicester development.

Set to open in Autumn 2008, Highcross Leicester will absorb the existing Shires shopping centre to become a single vibrant destination of over 100,000 m2 incorporating an unrivalled choice of over 100 aspirational fashion retailers, three department stores - John Lewis, Debenhams, and House of Fraser - 120 contemporary apartments, 3,000 parking spaces, and Leicester's very first city centre multiplex cinema.

Anchored by a four storey John Lewis department store, the scheme's fashion line-up will include style-leaders such as Zara, Reiss, Next, H&M, New Look, River Island and Republic.

Designed as a series of open streets and squares by some of the world's highest profile architects, Highcross Leicester will be introducing some of the most exciting concepts in al fresco dining to Leicester's two million-strong catchment population.

Up to 20 new cafés and restaurants will offer diners external seating arranged around two specially created public squares, each providing a very distinctive eating environment. The buzzing atmosphere of the mix of casual eateries situated around the new twelve-screen Cinema de Lux in the main open square will be complemented by a quieter, more soothing, ambience in the second courtyard-style square housing restaurants in carefully restored historic buildings.

It will be first time that Leicester city centre will see such a large influx of new café and restaurant openings within a single environment. The range of cuisine, set against a backdrop of open air piazzas, combined with the overall development's cosmopolitan mix of city-living style apartments, trend-setting retailer brands, iconic new architecture within extensively landscaped and secure well-lit surroundings, will ensure that Highcross Leicester will become a major regional destination.

http://www.theretailbulletin.com/?ta...c169943b39f1d8

[Lears City]

Thanks for the update flange.

A very exciting development to look forward to. At 1.2 million square feet, I wonder how Highcross Leicester compares in size to other shopping centres in the UK. Obviously places like Meadowhall would be much larger, but it must be one of the biggest city centre schemes?

[danz013]

Meadowhalls is 131,922.... about the size of Broadmarsh upon completion.

[flange]

Highcross probably will be in the top 10 of biggest city centre shopping centres but Manchester Arndale is one of the biggest at 1.4 million sq ft at present but Manchester will be overtaken when Westfield London opens in 2008 as that will be 1.6 million sq ft and will become one of the biggest city centre shopping centres

[Lears City]

Does anyone know the total size of Highcross Leicester? I've seen quotes that put the extension to Shires at 60,000 sqm, which will double the size of the complex. Does that mean Highcross is 120,000 sqm?

I've read that there will be over 100,000 sqm of retail space and then you have to add on the 7 storey car park, Cinema de Lux, apartments, restaurant quarter etc...

According to what I've read, Broadmarsh is aiming at 120,000 sqm too?

[danz013]

Noo...the plans were increase in april...the council gave them permission this year... retailers demanded more space for mezzanine floors so they had to slap on another 9m ontop of the whole centre.

[Leicity82]

The website for Highcross states 'over 100,000m2 of shopping', however on Hammerson's site they state 60,000 m2. The 100,000m2 probably includes the existing centre aswell. I thinks it's more about quality than quantity.


Good news about the three restaurants!

[leicesterTowers]

New press release:



Hammerson and Hermes have signed up three restaurant chains in at their £350m Highcross Leicester scheme.

YO! Sushi, Wagamama and The Handmade Burger Company will take space at the schemes ‘Covent Garden-style’ restaurant quarter – all opening in Leicester for the first time.

The scheme will open in autumn next year and will be anchored by John Lewis, Debenhams, and House of Fraser. Fashion retailers include Zara, Reiss, Next, H&M, New Look, River Island and Republic.

Wagamama has committed to a 3,013 sq ft canteen-style restaurant, Yo Sushi has taken 2,766 sq ft two-floor restaurant next door to Wagamama and The Handmade Burger Company will open a 3,982 sq ft restaurant.

The scheme also includes a ‘Cinema de Lux’ multiplex cinema, two new public squares and a 120 apartments.

[Lears City]

The biggest regeneration project in the city's history is under way - providing hundreds of jobs for local people.

About a third of the 550-strong workforce for the £350 million Shires extension come from Leicestershire.

For bricklayer Steve Grieves, 49, of Glenfield, working on the project is a real family affair.

Steve, a director with EW Construction, said his son Michael, 23, also works as a brickie, while daughter, Michelle, 21, is a sales assistant in the on-site shop.

His three brothers, Graham, James and Robert also work on site, as do numerous cousins and nephews.

Steve, who has been bricklaying since 1975, worked on the original Shires.

He said: "Most of the lads are from town, and I would say 80 per cent of the 70-odd people here working for EW Construction are related and from working class areas.

"It's a family firm and a good firm to work for. It means problems are resolved quickly.

"It's boom time for Leicester, and it means we're giving young workers a chance. Bricklaying is a good job. I'm proud to be working here."

Tim Kirkland is a glass fitter and supervisor - working for glazing Norman and Underwood - and said it was a particularly significant job for him and his colleagues as the company used to have its base on the site.

The 41-year-old father of three from Rowley Fields, described it as a "great project" to be involved in.

He said: "When it's finished there will be a lot of pride in it. It will be nice to be able to say I played a part.

"We're doing things such as the balustrades in the inner mall, so when we're shopping in the years to come it will be nice to say, 'I did that'."

Jamie Smith, 30, from South Wigston, is one of two sprinkler fitters and loves working close to home, so he can be with his partner, Natalie Allen and their 10-month-old baby, Maddox.

He said: "Being home every night is a real bonus, instead of only getting back at weekends when I'm working away."

He is sometimes among one of the 50-odd workers who move into the existing Shires centre when the shoppers go home at night, to work on the changes under way there.

Crane operator Nick Brown, 21, from Braunstone, also loves the job.

He has been on site for seven months and said the money was good and the job - moving everything from steal, bricks and mortar to the expensive Austrian-made windows shrouding the new John Lewis store - was interesting.

He said: "From above, you can see the changes being made every day.

"It's nice seeing that in my own city."

Graduate engineer Richard Neilson, 23, from Highfields, never planned to move back to the city but was drawn by the chance of working on such a big project.

He said: "It's my first live site basically. It's complicated but it's good.

"When the sun's shining you can't beat it, but when it was a big muddy field last spring it was depressing.

"If I stay in Leicester, I'm sure I'll be coming to use the cinema here."

SOURCE: Leicester Mercury 06/08/2007

[leicesterTowers]

According to the program on BBC2 last night, Highcross Leiester will be "almost as Big as the Gobi desert"

Sounds impressive, but I'm surprised by that.