The Crown Estate and Land Securities have won consent for their long-awaited £500m redevelopment of the Westgate Centre in Oxford.
The joint venture, known as the Westgate Oxford Alliance, has spent four years preparing the plans and undertaking consultation.
John Lewis will anchor the scheme, scheduled to open in 2017.
The new Westgate will provide space for up to 100 new shops as well as restaurants, cafés and leisure uses, including a cinema, set in a mix of covered streets, arcades, lanes and squares.
The existing Westgate will be completely refurbished and adjacent land to the south redeveloped to provide up to 900,000 sq ft of retail, up to 290,000 sq ft of cafés and restaurants and up to 65,000 sq ft of leisure.
There will be between 27 and 122 new homes, a basement car park for up to 1,100 cars, cycle parking, a new landscaped walkway, a re-routed bus priority lane and 24-hour pedestrian routes.
The new scheme will create two new public squares.
Jeremy Collins, property director at John Lewis, said: “This is very exciting news. We have long held an ambition to open a John Lewis department store in Oxford and we are delighted that a significant milestone has now been achieved.”
Councillor Bob Price, leader of Oxford city council, said: “The redevelopment of the Westgate Centre is long overdue and our retail offer has failed to keep pace with the expansion of the local economy.
“We are very pleased with the high quality of design, and the attention to the environmental impact of the development that Westgate Oxford Alliance has proposed. The creation of new public spaces, a large bike hub and links across to the Oxford Castle development are all very welcome features of the new Westgate.”
The Alliance is now progressing the detailed designs with architects Allies & Morrison, Dixon Jones Architects, Glen Howells Architects and Panter Hudspith. BDP is the masterplanner.
julia.cahill@estatesgazette.com
