Centros Miller - Retail Development - Portsmouth, Northern Quarter
Date: 12 May 2006
Urban regeneration specialist Centros Miller has exchanged contracts with John Lewis Partnership to take the major 230,000 sq ft (21,367 sq m) anchor store in Portsmouth's £350 million Northern Quarter development, being financed by its shareholders Delancey and The Miller Group.
John Marsh, development director of Centros Miller, says: "Securing a John Lewis department store sets a very high standard for the type of retailers we intend to attract to the development and it will act as a major catalyst for the regeneration of the city centre as a whole."
The exchange of legal agreements also means that Centros Miller is now fully committed to take responsibility for revitalising the Knight & Lee premises in Southsea after John Lewis opens in the Northern Quarter in 2009. "We now have three years to work up our plans for the property, which we hope will contribute towards the overall regeneration of Southsea town centre," adds John Marsh.
The new full-line John Lewis department store in the Northern Quarter will extend over four floors and will form the main retail focal point towards the top of Commercial Road in the city centre. John Lewis Partnership's existing partners in Southsea will transfer to the new store once it opens and hundreds more will be recruited.
Ann Humphries, director of retail development for John Lewis, says: "We are very excited about the plans for Portsmouth and are pleased to have reached this milestone for our new shop."
The one million sq ft (92,900 sq m) Northern Quarter development will also feature a second anchor store and will provide more than 80 other new shops, cafés and restaurants, a 150-bed, four-star hotel, 200 apartments, other leisure uses and 2,300 car parking spaces.
The scheme will cover 17 acres (6.9 hectares) of the city centre and includes the site of the former Tricorn shopping centre demolished by Centros Miller a year ago. It will have direct access to the realigned main highway network leading from the M275 motorway.
Both Centros Miller and John Lewis are working closely with Portsmouth City Council to achieve a number of significant improvements to the city centre, with the aim of seamlessly integrating the new development with the existing city centre.
Construction work is planned to start during 2007 and the completed development is scheduled to open in autumn 2009.
Leslie Furness and Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker are joint agents for the scheme; Chapman Taylor is the lead architect.
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