Published: Monday 14th October 2019 | 11.18am
McArthurGlen, Europe’s leading owner, developer and manager of designer outlets, is celebrating a year of progress for its highly anticipated £160 million designer outlet in Cannock, twelve months after breaking ground on the shopping centre.
Over 20 guests visited the designer outlet today (Friday 11th October) to mark the occasion, including Leader of Cannock Chase Council, George Adamson, council Managing Director, Tony McGovern, and a range of other local representatives. They were joined by McArthurGlen’s joint venture partners Aviva Investors, The Richardson Family and U+I, taking a tour of the development and hearing all about progress from McArthurGlen and contractor, Bowmer + Kirkland.
Spanning 285,000 sq ft of retail space across two phases, the designer outlet will become McArthurGlen’s 26th centre, and its seventh in the UK. Due to complete in autumn 2020, Phase I will be home to around 80 iconic brands and high-street favourites offering year-round savings of up to 60%, along with a selection of restaurants and cafés, a children’s play area, and bike parking for cyclists.
Steelwork and building structures are nearly complete at the constantly evolving site, with facades and roofs being installed prior to internal fit-outs of the outlet shops. Car parking is also underway and the centre will boast 1,400 spaces upon completion.
To date, approximately 1,270 tonnes of steel has been used, with over 60,000 structural bolts and 580 square metres of timber cladding. 234 upper windows are now in place.
Around 2,500 people will be working on the site over the duration of the project, and once fully open, McArthurGlen Designer Outlet West Midlands will create 1,000 new retail jobs for the local community.
Mike Thomas, the inaugeral Centre Manager, said: “We’re delighted to have welcomed visitors today and to have celebrated our progress at the site one year after breaking ground. Once complete, McArthurGlen Designer Outlet West Midlands will be a landmark retail destination, attracting visitors from all over the region and beyond, with local tourism spend expected to grow by £3 million annually.
“The centre is set to be one of the area’s biggest employers and will support around £20 million of employment income for the local economy every year. We are extremely proud to be partnering with Walsall College on the Access to Retail Employability Programme, a training academy helping local people get the skills they need to benefit from the range of opportunities we’ll be creating at the centre.”
McArthurGlen has also committed £15 million to a highway improvements programme and a further £1.5 million package supporting local projects that will bring significant benefits to the local community, including the enhancement and ongoing maintenance of the Mill Green Nature Park, improvements to Cannock Town Centre, and the railway station.
Councillor George Adamson, Leader of Cannock Chase Council, said “It is truly amazing to see the progress made over the past year. I would like to say a huge thank you to our residents for their patience for the disruption on the roads during the essential highways works. This is the most exciting thing to happen to our District and I can’t wait for it to open next year.”
