St. Modwen has handed over the vast new Marks & Spencer store at its £100 million Longbridge Town Centre for fit out, in preparation for the grand opening later this year and the Christmas shopping period.
At 150,000 sq ft, the two–storey unit will be the Midlands’ largest M&S store. Shoppers can expect find the very best that M&S has to offer, including womenswear, beauty, food, menswear, kidswear, home products and a café.
The front of the striking new store will boast the latest M&S branding and a living, breathing green wall, which will stay green throughout the year. A six floor multi-storey and 500 space surface car park are also being delivered.
M&S is the flagship store of the eagerly awaited further phase of the evolving Longbridge Town Centre, which also includes an additional 45,000 sq ft of shops – retailers will be announced in the coming weeks. A separate, further phase, which includes a cinema, gym, restaurant and café space, is planned for 2016.
It follows the huge success of the initial phase of the town centre which was launched in 2013 and features household names including Sainsbury’s, Premier Inn and Beefeater, Costa Coffee, Greggs and a number of independent retailers alongside the £66 million Bournville College, £2 million Austin Park and award-winning landmark Park Point office building.
Steve Prosser, St. Modwen’s Midlands Regional Director, said: “With around 30,000 shoppers already visiting Longbridge Town Centre each week, the presence of M&S will further boost the retail offering. With its extensive offering of fashion, food and homeware and the creation of hundreds of jobs for local people, it is a considerable addition to the Town Centre.
“We are particularly pleased M&S will be trading in time for the Christmas shopping period, adding to the existing variety of stores and food outlets available to our shoppers. M&S together with the range of other units will create a real buzz around what is already anticipated to be the best trading period for a long long time.”
Andrew Scanlan, Head of Central West Region at M&S, added: “M&S Longbridge will be one of our largest stores in the country and will offer the the latest and best in M&S products. Its vibrancy, connectivity and diverse, growing population makes Longbridge the perfect destination for M&S.”
Richard Fielding, area director of Morgan Sindall plc, the contractor that has built the new store, said: “This has been a challenging and rewarding project and it is with great pride that we are handing the building over to Marks & Spencer. They are a household name with which people associate quality, value and attention to detail and we are pleased to have been able to play our part in helping them, and St Modwen, maintain these values.”
The Longbridge community has so far seen £300 million of investment from St. Modwen, the UK’s leading regeneration specialist, and the creation of 3,500 jobs since regeneration began on the former MG Rover site in 2003. Nearly 400 family homes have also been created by St. Modwen Homes and through a joint venture with Persimmon. Construction work on a £35 million ExtraCare Retirement Village is now underway and planning permission has been secured for a major office building called One Park Square that will create hundreds of jobs. Plans have also been submitted for a landmark residential facility for military staff working at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) Birmingham.