Plans for a £150m retail and leisure expansion of the 580,000 sq ft Fosse Shopping Park in Leicestershire have been approved by Blaby District Council.
Put forward by retailer Next, adjacent site owner Everards Brewery in collaboration with the Fosse Park Partnership, the 280,000 sq ft growth plan will expand Fosse Park onto adjacent land at Castle Acres.
The local authority will now refer the Castle Acres Shopping Park expansion plans to the Secretary of State for final approval.
Under the expansion plans the adjacent 12.5-acre Everards Brewery site will be redeveloped to create around 288,000 sq ft of shops, restaurants and cafés. The extension will be linked to the Fosse Shopping Park.
Next and TK Maxx will take large new units in the expanded shopping park. Next will open a 90,000 sq ft, three-storey store and TK Maxx will open a 34,000 sq ft store.
The plans were originally submitted in June 2015, and updated in April 2016 to improve the development’s offering for large-format retailers, complementing the existing offer at Fosse Park.
The approval of Castle Acres Shopping Park will also enable Everards Brewery to relocate to a modern food and drink attraction south of Soar Valley Way. Called Everards Meadows, the first phase will open in spring 2018 and include a new brewery along with tasting rooms, a pub, restaurant, Everards shop, offices and cycling centre for visitors to hire bikes.
The Everards Meadows plan was approved by Blaby District Council last April.
Dominic O’Rourke, property director at Next, said: “The committee’s decision endorses the hard work that has gone into the plans for Castle Acres Shopping Park, and will allow us to step up our discussions with potential tenants.”
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