Yorkshire: Top 5 biggest retail milestones of 2015

2015 is quickly coming to an end, and as the businesspeople of Yorkshire will look back on what has been a hugely successful year for the region, Bdaily wants to celebrate the great achievements of the past twelve months

Retail has been a hot sector for 2015, thus proving that Yorkshire is establishing itself as one of the UK’s prime shopping locations, therefore I wanted to highlight some of what I believe are the biggest and most exciting retail announcements from this past year.

Sheffield Retail Quarter

Starting at No.1 is the forthcoming £480m Sheffield Retail Quarter. The city centre development will see the area between Barkers Pool, Pinstone Street and Charter Square transformed into new shops, offices, restaurants and flats.

Planning permission submitted this past August featured space for a mix of aspirational brands, high street shops and the independent stores that give Sheffield its character.

Historical buildings such as Leah’s Yard and The Citadel (Salvation Army building) will be preserved, as well as facades along Pinstone Street and of the old Sunday School.

Sheffield Retail Quarter could create around 2,500 jobs and bring in approximately an additional £300m a year to the city centre that people currently spend elsewhere.

The Broadway

Coming in at a close second is Bradford’s £260m shopping destination, The Broadway, which opened its doors on November 5th.

The shopping centre created around 2,500 new retail jobs and is the largest retail centre in the country to open in 2015.

The Broadway features department and fashion brands, including anchors Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, and high street fashion stores H&M, Next, Topshop, Topman, New Look, schuh and River Island.

Just last month, it was announced that The Light, one of the UK’s newest cinema brands, has signed up to operate Meyer Bergman’s new state-of-the-art cinemaas part of an extension at The Broadway.

This latest development includes a six-screen, 780 seat cinema and four restaurants, totaling 35,000 sq ft additional space in The Broadway. 100 new jobs will also be created.

Victoria Gate

In third place is the £165m Victoria Gate scheme, which is already well underway in Leeds city centre.

The retail development, which includes a flagship John Lewis store, along with restaurants and two covered streets, is set to be completed in late 2016.

Expected to provide more than 1,000 new jobs for the people of Leeds, Victoria Gate recently reached a major construction milestone with the installation of the steel diagrid frame for John Lewis’ building as well as hanging the diamond façade panels that now enclose the upper stories of the building to reveal its unique architecture.

Leeds’ newest retail landmark is scheduled to open in late 2016.

The Kirkstall Bridge Shopping Park

Holding the fourth position is the recently opened £40m retail park in Kirkstall.

The Kirkstall Bridge Shopping Park site, a new retail and leisure development which covers approximately 120,000 sq ft, includes high street brands such as HS, Pets at Home, JD Sport, Outfit, Costa Coffee and Pure Gym.

In addition, a new 8,440 sq ft Marks & Spencer Foodhall also recently opened at the centre, which created 25 new jobs for the local area and provides shoppers with more than 5,800 food and drink lines.

In early 2016 a Specsavers, The Food Warehouse and toy retailer Smyths are planned to open stores in the centre too.

Kirkstall Bridge Shopping Park, which has created more than 200 jobs, officially opened its doors to the public for the first time at 10am on October 30th.

Crawshaw Group PLC

In my fifth and final place is Rotherham-based Fresh Meat and Food-to-go retailer, Crawshaw Group PLC.

I am very aware that this isn’t a new retail centre like the previous choices, but I believed Crawshaw had to make my Top 5 due to the company’s long-term investment plans for Yorkshire.

Back in July, it was announced that by 2022, Crawshaws Group will invest £200m into its business, opening 200 stores and creating 2,500 jobs. Over the next 18 months, 15% of these jobs will be based in Yorkshire as part of a £25m investment.

Four more stores will have opened by this Christmas, which will see the retailer’s operations grow from 22 stores to 39 within just nine months. A further 15 stores are planned by the end of 2016.