300 jobs to be created as work starts on £36m Rotherham retail scheme

Sheffield-based contractor JF Finnegan has commenced work to deliver Cortonwood Shopping Park, the 120,000 sq ft new retail extension to the 50 acre Cortonwood Retail Park near Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

The new £36m retail park is expected to create over 300 new jobs for the local area.

Helical Retail, which appointed JF Finnegan to the scheme, has already secured pre-lets to national retailers on 10 of the 11 units.

M&S, JD Sports, River Island, H&M, New Look, Arcadia, Poundland, CJ Clarke, Wilkinson and Frankie & Benny’s form the new line up at Cortonwood Shopping Park leaving just one 4,000 sq ft unit available via letting agent Edgerley Simpson Howe.

The 11 new retail units, totalling 120,000 sq ft, will be ready for occupiers to be trading in by Autumn 2017.

The contract continues JF Finnegan’s long-standing involvement at the former colliery site, having constructed all 250,000 sq ft of retail units in the previous phases over the last 20 years. Occupiers at the flagship retail park include B&Q, Morrisons, Next, Argos, Asda Living and Boots.

Helical Retail’s Adrian Russell said: “Our aspirations for a new retail development to enhance the existing offering at Cortonwood have been long awaited by the local residents and we are delighted to have now reached the stage where work is starting on site.

“By attracting new retailers to the area, the scheme is bringing significant capital investment and new jobs to the locality in addition to adding to the vibrancy of an already successful retail destination. We appointed JF Finnegan due to their historic involvement with Cortonwood and their strong reputation and are looking forward to seeing work progress on site.”

Dawa Singh, head of pre-construction at JF Finnegan, added: “Over the years we have witnessed the transformation of Cortonwood into one of the region’s most acclaimed regeneration projects and shopping destinations. We have been working alongside Helical Retail and their Project Managers PMS (Wessex) Limited for some time to develop the plans for the new extension which will ensure the continued success of the development. Our teams are now undertaking preparatory works on site.”

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →