Building works completed at new £35m retail park in Sheffield

Building works have now been completed at the new £35m St James Retail Park in Norton, South Sheffield.

Acting as main contractor, GMI Construction Group officially handed over the site to St James Securities and NFU Mutual, which have already pre-let 100% of the 146,000 sq ft scheme ahead of opening.

Occupiers include Next, M&S Foodhall, Aldi, TK Maxx, Superdrug, Homesense, Wilko, Pets at Home, Mountain Warehouse, Shoezone, Card Factory, Specsavers, Greggs and Costa.

GMI Construction created 124 jobs on the development during the 56 weeks construction period.

Building works involved the full demolition of the former Norton College building and new infrastructure works for more controlled access to the site.

This included adjustments and widening of the existing Meadowhead roundabout and a new traffic light system at Bochum Parkway.

GMI also delivered 13 high specification units, with features including live ‘green’ walls and colour coded aluminium cladding, yard space and 420 car parking spaces.

Andy Bruce, managing director of GMI Construction Group said: “We are delighted to complete this project working closely with St James Securities and delivery partners Whittam Cox Architects and Rex Procter & Partners.

“We completed the project exactly to schedule despite the challenges of working in a live environment, close to a main road, leisure centre and school, where pedestrian and traffic management were critical.”

St James Securities is now working with occupiers for fit out with an official opening planned in July. A further 250 full time jobs will be created when the park is in full operation.

Dan Murray, construction director at St James Securities, commented: “The project has been a huge success achieved through a lot of hard work by all the team who should all be very proud of what we have delivered here.

“We have raised the bar when it comes to out of town Retail Park design making the scheme stand out against other schemes up and down the country. The first class design together with the Park’s superb ring road location has made the development very attractive to tenants allowing us to fully let the scheme ahead of Practical Completion.”

Established in 1986, GMI Construction Group directly employs 80 people with 65 located at its Leeds headquarters and 15 at its new offices in Manchester.

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