A major retail development transforming land off a junction of the M5 motorway in Gloucestershire has taken another step forward.
Site owner and developer, Robert Hitchins, has appointed outlet manager Realm to pre-let the 90-unit 195,000 square foot Cotswolds Designer Outlet and operate it when it opens.
According to the Gloucestershire developer, the retail centre is ‘on target’ to launch in 2023 and Realm’s leasing team ‘is already in discussions with leading international designer brands, which they will seek to complement with independent local businesses’.
The site is describe as being in a prime position next to Junction 9 of the motorway, with 21 million passing cars each year, ‘offering access to an affluent and sizeable resident catchment and substantial tourist custom delivering an estimated annual spend of £3.6 billion’.
Christine Grace, leasing director at Somerset-based Realm, said: ‘The outlet sector offers a healthy potential income profile for investors and brand partners alike and this new scheme is already attracting the attention of world-class brands keen to take advantage of this brand-new destination in what is a prime spot.’
The centre, off the A46 at Junction 9 of the M5 at Ashchurch, will sit alongside a ‘flagship’ 74,000 sq ft Dobbies Garden Centre and 850 new homes adjacent to the site.
Simon Tothill, property and development director at Robert Hitchins Ltd, which employs nearly 50 staff at its Boddington headquarters, said the ‘on-site infrastructure works are progressing well’ and that the end result would be an ‘industry leading new destination’.
By Andrew Merrell
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