Westfield has announced it is on track to open its £1.6bn London shopping scheme on schedule for Christmas.

One of its major anchors, Marks & Spencer, has begun fit out of its store at Westfield London and is the first store to be handed over to a retailer.

The 157,000 sq ft store will occupy three levels and is located in the north east corner of the scheme. The lowest level will house a food hall with direct car park access. The other levels will be dedicated to Marks & Spencer’s fashion and homeware ranges.

Christmas 2008

Westfield and owner Commerz Real will hand over to its other anchors between now and spring with construction progressing on schedule for a Christmas 2008 opening.

Large, department store retailers usually need at least eight or nine months to fit out a store prior to opening, with many taking a year.

Michael Gutman, managing director of Westfield UK & Europe said: ‘M&S at Westfield London will be the second M&S store to open from our UK development pipeline and follows its successful launch at Westfield Derby last October. We look forward to working with Marks & Spencer on new stores for them at our Stratford City, Bradford and Nottingham developments.’

Topics