Together, as St David’s Partnership, Capital Shopping Centres and Land Securities are developing the landmark St David’s 2 development in Cardiff, extending the retail offer of the existing St David’s Centre to 1,394,500sq ft and making it one of the largest shopping destinations in the UK.
Capital Shopping Centres (CSC), part of FTSE 100 company Liberty International PLC, is a leading specialist in the ownership, management and development of regional shopping centres in the UK and owns nine of the UK’s top 30 shopping centres.
Land Securities is the UK’s leading real estate investment trust, with a national portfolio of commercial property worth around £12bn. Its investment portfolio contains over 50 retail parks and shopping centres.
The multi-million pound investment in Cardiff city centre, St David’s 2 will establish the city as one of the premier retail destinations in Europe. Due for completion in autumn 2009, the 967,500sq ft, retail-led mixed-use project will include Wales’s first John Lewis department store, which at some 280,000sq ft is the largest John Lewis store outside London.
The scheme will also feature 139 shops and catering units; 304 new homes; new amenities and public spaces; 3,000 car parking spaces; and, perhaps most unusually, a 55,000sq ft, state-of-the-art six-storey civic library that opens early in March, incorporating three restaurant units: Wagamama, and Gourmet Burger Kitchen, both of which opened last year, and Strada, which is yet to open.
“We have also signed 13 new retailers to Cardiff, and in some instances, Wales, including Crabtree & Evelyn, All Saints, Hugo Boss, Radley and Links of London,” says Caroline Kirby, Property Director of Capital Shopping Centres.
“Having enlarged our catchment, we are now focused on broadening the centre’s attractiveness to that area.”
The refurbishment programme at the existing St David’s will provide a seamless transition between centres and the project as a whole is creating a new and exciting retail environment.
From the outset, the brief had been to regenerate and revitalise a significant part of the city, drawing together the retail elements into a coherent whole. “Our Architect, Benoy, took this on board and worked up a scheme that ensured that the buildings and the environment that they have created, relate to and develop the grain of this part of Cardiff, as well as making a substantial and positive contribution to the city,” explains Martin Ellis, Construction Director of Capital Shopping Centres.
For the full article, please see the March 2009 issue.
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