St. Davids Shopping Centre

Cardiff remains to be the largest John Lewis outside of London which may be problematic if there’s any truth to the speculation. I can’t imagine how John Lewis Cardiff could scale back its size? Surely there’s no logical way to subdivide that unit?

That's not true, Leeds has been their largest store outside London for a while. And I wouldn't take that much comfort from that anyway, they closed their Birmingham store that had only opened in 2015, and that was only a bit smaller than the Cardiff store at 250,000 square feet. Imagine losing John Lewis from Cardiff! We've already lost Debenhams and House of Fraser is moribund.

John Lewis Cardiff measures at 280,000 sq ft. I don’t believe the store footprint has reduced in size since opening? John Lewis Leeds occupies a 255,000 sq ft unit.

John Lewis Birmingham was a vanity project led by Mayor of Birmingham Andy Street who was once the Managing Director of JLP. The premise that John Lewis Grand Central was a personal project pushed forward by Andy Street is often cited as one of the reasons the store didn’t last.

My inside source has reassured FOR Cardiff that John Lewis Cardiff will be unaffected by any upcoming JLP store closures.

Presumably the discrepancy is the delivery hub. I believe John Lewis Cardiff, for example has 180,000 sq feet of shopping space. Wasn't there also originally going to be a call centre in the ukding that was shelved before it ever opened?

Cardiff not on the John Lewis closure list.

https://www.johnlewis.com/our-shops

Some pretty major cities included though, am surprised they're not reopening and seeing how sales go considering the demise of much of their competition.

Phew - I've been trying to imagine St Davids without john lewis, that would've been pretty grim. Ironically if our john lewis survives then it could really thrive, due to many other john lewis's being shut down. Anyway this is relieving and very good news for our city centre. Like all businesses tills need to start ringing again, and hopefully will in the not too distant.

Some pretty major cities included though, am surprised they're not reopening and seeing how sales go considering the demise of much of their competition.

Half of them are the John Lews at Home format though, rather than the departments stores.

Official announcement for Zara opening on the Upper Grand Arcade: https://www.propertyfundsworld.com/2021 ... ds-cardiff

It also mentions that Bo Concept will be opening this Spring, with Morphe also opening in the Summer.

Cardiff based 'The Bagel Place' have also submitted a planning application to occupy the old Sbelended Milkshake unit opposite Greggs on the Town Wall in SD1.

Disappointed that Zara does not seem to be including Zara Home in this store according to the PR? A similar sizes Zara concept store that opened in London end of last year did include Zara Home. A missed opportunity if this isn't being included in St Davids

Sky Store with an iSmash accessories concession is expected to open in LG03 (previous Game unit) on the Lower Grand Arcade. A planning application was submitted this week!

In other news Bo Concept, Breitling and Tag Heuer have opened new stores across the centre.

The latest store closures are Curry’s Digital (LG47/48), Kids Around (LG32), Thorntons (TW21) and Crouch (CW13).

It’s rumoured that Polo Ralph Lauren have attended a site visit at St. David’s 2. The units in question are apparently LG62/63/64. Would be a nice addition to the Hayes if true!

The Flagship Zara opened today. Very disappointing that after the long wait and all the fuss they haven't included a Zara Home!!

The Flagship Zara opened today. Very disappointing that after the long wait and all the fuss they haven't included a Zara Home!!

I don't think that was a secret though - you even said they wouldn't a couple of posts above?

I would imagine fashion is a far more valuable retail space in a city centre location, and perhaps that's a conclusion they came to following their London concept store.

Previous post 'does not seem to' yesterday's post confirmation