HIGH street giant River Island is the latest retailer to sign up to the £85 million Cattle Market development in Bury St Edmunds, it has been confirmed.
HIGH street giant River Island is the latest retailer to sign up to the £85 million Cattle Market development in Bury St Edmunds, it has been confirmed.
It means more than 60% of the Centros Miller development is let three months ahead of construction starting.
New to the town, River Island will take 9,000 sq ft of space in a corner unit near HMV.
The leading men's and women's high street fashion chain has more than 200 stores in the UK and is one of the largest and most successful privately-owned companies.
John Laker, managing director of Centros Miller, said: “River Island is a first-rate addition to Bury's current retail offer and we are delighted to have another high street brand of this calibre sign up at this early stage in the development.
“The scheme is already showing a very strong fashion line-up and as we move into the construction phase, we expect to complement the major stores with a range of other smaller shops to give both the development and Bury even more variety and choice.
“Once completed, the added attraction of all the new shops in the Cattle Market development will help to keep local shoppers from travelling to other towns, and that will benefit all the existing retailers too.”
St Edmundsbury Borough Council leader and chairman of the Cattle Market Redevelopment Working Party, John Griffiths, added: “Another new name for Bury illustrates the continuing confidence and interest in the town's future.
“It is an exciting development for our residents and visitors alike, as well as for our existing retailers and town centre.”
Providing 265,000sq ft of new shopping anchored by an 85,000sq ft Debenhams department store, the development will create 35 shop units, 850 car parking spaces, more than 60 residential apartments and a multi-use public venue building.
Other retailers to have signed up include TopShop/TopMan, H&M, New Look, Wallis, Next, HMV and Waterstones.
Workers are currently laying electricity cables at the site in preparation for the construction phase, which begins later this year before the scheduled opening in autumn 2008.
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