Stane Retail Park, in Stanway, near Colchester, is to become the home of a new 80,000sq ft Marks and Spencer department store. Together with a 20,000sq ft Food Hall on the ground floor, M&S will occupy the remaining retail space over two floors linked by escalators.
The exciting new store will have a full range of clothing and homewares, an extended food line, click and collect and an M&S Café. It will be open following fitting out in late summer 2022.
M&S has been keen to open at Stane Retail Park for some time and previously committed to opening a 11,800sq ft Food Hall, before deciding to expand into a larger unit of 20,000sq ft. More recently, M&S has decided to enlarge its offering in Stanway and has taken the adjacent unit in addition.
The current employees of the town centre will be relocating to the new store at Stane Retail Park and there will also be additional employment opportunities for local people.
Matt Cloke, development director at Churchmanor Estates, said: “Stane Retail Park is the only major retail park in the county to be built and funded through the Covid-19 pandemic period, and we are pleased that the risk we took to build the scheme speculatively has been endorsed by lettings to Aldi and B&Q, and now more recently M&S has entered into a 20-year commitment at the park.
"M&S is rolling out a selective programme of new department stores in only the very best retailing locations in the country and we are pleased Colchester has been chosen for such a major new retail investment.”
The £65m Stane Retail Park will be fully completed in early April 2022, when M&S will commence its fitting out works. Cook opened last Friday and Greggs is due to commence works to its unit shortly. The existing tenants, B&Q and Aldi, have been open since the end of 2021.
As part of the construction works, Churchmanor has spent £2.6million on improvements to the Eight Ash Green A12 roundabout with a new four-way traffic signal junction and the widening of the Western Bypass to two lanes between Essex Yeomanry Way and the Sainsbury’s roundabout.
Emma Proctor King, head of communications at Churchmanor, said: “We are pleased that Marks and Spencer has decided to take more space at Stane Retail Park. We feel confident that this will enhance the continued success of the retail park, and provide an improved shopping experience for the residents of Stanway.”
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