A great day – touch wood!

Solihull’s Touchwood shopping centre finally opened on 5 September. Lucy Barnard watched the Lend Lease team do battle with everything from leaks to filthy floors as it put the finishing touches to a three-year project It is eight o’clock on a Tuesday evening and a band of dishevelled, dusty individuals are sweeping the floor of the basement car park at the near-complete Touchwood shopping centre in Solihull. Nadine Bansgrove, business development manager of Lend Lease, leans heavily onher mop and sighs. “When they put ‘maybe required to perform other duties’ atthe bottom of my job description, I certainly didn’t think they meant this,” she says. Lisa Bell, a management trainee whom Lend Lease has sponsored through her final year at university, continues scrubbing at the brown mess on the car park floor. “I’ve been doing this since eight this morning, and I’ll probably be sweeping floors all night.” The six-strong working party also boasts community liaison officer John Calwardine brandishing a hose, and Marie Young, PA to the project manager, wielding a large broom – their mission: to clean the 20,000m2 (215,280 sq ft) shopping centre car park in time for the grand opening at 9.30am the next day. Sense of excitement “The week before, we were informed that we might be required for some light work ‘such as polishing banisters’,” says Nadine. “But they probably have professionals to do that sort of stuff!” There’s a real sense of excitement in the frantic activity required in the last hours before opening. Even the bedraggled cleaning gang is unfazed by the long hoursof heavy work, stretching through thenight. Everything else is forgotten in the push to finish by the date that has been stamped on their minds for the lastthree years – Wednesday 5 September2001. Earlier in the day, there was a moment of what the team call “controlled panic” when project manager Jeremy Collins discovered green dust covering the main block of ladies toilets. No-one knew where it had come from, and as soon as the cleaning staff removed it, it came back. Tension was building throughout the previous week. Seven days before opening, all the key project staff were assembled for a final briefing. At the head of the table, Collins fiddled nervously with his pen lid, running through his checklist. First, had the leak in the community room been fixed? He glanced around the table at his team in search of reassurance. It came. The leak had been fixed and the carpets were drying out, although the room was still rather musty. Last-minute hitches Sean Burn, retail development manager, ran through the list of shops scheduled to open their doors on the first day of trading – stores ready to open were coloured green, those to be boarded up in red. The greens included French Connection, Gap, H&M, Jane Norman, and Miss Selfridge. More of a problem were those labelled in orange: shops that could be open on the big day, but where there was still a lot of work to be done. “What about Karen Millen?” asked someone at the table. “Will that be green or red?” Sean considered. “It’s going to be close, but I’ve offered them as much help as they need to push it to red,” he said. It was decided that the shop front of Serene Order would be covered by a stage set, and the same went for Mexx and Mango. Uniqlo would be delayed because there was a problem with the Japanese bank guarantee, and Benetton’s opening was being held up by negotiations in Italy. The shop fronts were to be dressed by a firm called Peter’s Package, which caused much hilarity around the table. Other problems emerged. Traders had been throwing their boxes into the access gangways, clogging the lifts; the real stone floors still had to be sealed before anything could be spilt on them; and warranties were still required. Back to the night before the opening – and after working flat out to sweep the car park, tidy up, and lay out the furniture, some team members are at last ready to put out the press packs for the media breakfast. Despite all efforts, there are still hitches on the opening day – minor ones. The centre is unable to organise shopmobility because the charity running it has had to wait for lottery approval for its funding. This means that someone will have to tape over the carefully laid out signs. The launch celebrations go smoothly enough – but architect Eric Kuhne’s grand tour of the centre comes to an abrupt halt when it’s found that some main doors remain stubbornly locked. Touchwood – The Countdown Diary Thursday 30 August Construction manager Jerry Whyte organises the construction of hoardings to hide the vacant and incomplete shops. Lend Lease construction teams are drafted in to help those employed by individual stores to get as many shops as possible ready for opening. Friday 31 August Final discussions are held on fitting out the shops due to open their doors on 5 September. Work continues on shop fronts. A meeting is held with the town centre sub-committee, the political point of contact for the council. Meetings have been held regularly since 1998. Saturday and Sunday, 1 and 2 September (weekend before opening) Work for Touchwood staff continues despite the weekend. The construction team officially hands over the car parks to the centre’s management at 6am on Saturday. Gangs of workmen seal the stone floors of the building – they take 12 hours to dry. Centre manager Ray Cliffe conducts operational trials. Lend Lease and John Lewis staff park in the centre’s car parks in order to pick up any problems. Monday 3 September Uniqlo, the last shop to sign up before the opening, finally takes a unit. Training days start for Touchwood hosts, and staff are employed to provide on-the-ground help for shoppers. The 24-hour cleaning operation begins. A meeting is held with the mayor for an opening briefing. Stage curtains or drapes are placed in front of shops unable to open in time, such as Mango and Next. Tuesday 4 September James Furse, manager of the 24,620m2 (265,000 sq ft) John Lewis, is one of several managers giving staff a final briefing and taking them on a tour of Touchwood. Activity continues into the early hours of the morning. The water feature is tested (and works) and fairy lights placed in the trees. Leather chairs are unpacked and placed in the communal areas. Wednesday 5 September (opening day) The final clean-up begins at 4am – the press briefing at 8am.