Marks & Spencer have lodged a planning application for a store within the Hampshire Business Park close to junction 7 of the M27. The move comes as a boost to London & Edinburgh Trust and Sheraton Securities, who formed the joint venture, Hampshire Business Parks, to develop a 65-acre site at Hedge End near Southampton.
The M&S store will occupy 11.3 acres and have a sales area of 80,000 sq ft on one level with surface parking for 850 cars.
Since their much-publicised decision in 1986 to consider out-of-town locations, M&S have not rushed into pursuing their £1.5bn modernisation and expansion programme. Commenting on the latest move, a spokesman said: “This spacious store will be ideally suited to the sale of larger items not easily displayed in, or transported from, the confines of a High Street store. Hedge End will complement the company’s significant investment in the local communities — which includes stores in Southampton, Portsmouth, Fareham and Winchester.”
The store will adjoin the site of a Sainsbury Savacentre, but M&S said the unit would still feature a large section offering a full selection of speciality and ready-prepared food.
M&S are already undertaking a series of joint edge-of-town developments in partnership with Tesco. The first scheme — in Camberley — is under way and will provide a 130,000-sq ft M&S store with a 110,000-sq ft Tesco’s.
In what might be described as their more familiar guise, M&S have confirmed that they will be taking a 20,000-sq ft unit in the Schofields town-centre shopping scheme in Leeds.
Joint agents for the development — Hammond Phillips and Edward Erdman — say they expect the news to “trigger an acceleration of letting activity” within the scheme. More than 50% of the centre is under offer and construction is scheduled to start in the autumn.
