And it's not as if the project is a massive city-centre mall like the Bullring, which famously took decades to put together. The redeveloped K-Village will provide just 35,000 sq ft of outlet retail, another 6,000 sq ft of full-price retail, a 5,000 sq ft heritage centre, offices and 120 apartments.

However, Drummond is convinced the cost in both time and money is justified by the opportunity to transform the existing facility, which he says lacks critical mass and has insufficient parking. "I've always felt it was a fabulous location," he says. "Windermere Cruises, just down the road, attracts a million-and-a-half visitors a year, and the Lake District is the place the people of Liverpool and Manchester have traditionally visited at weekends."

The saga began when Drummond approached then-owner MEPC to buy the centre subject to planning for redevelopment. He drew up a purely commercial scheme providing 75,000 sq ft of retail, tourist facilities and underground car parking. He sums up the result succinctly: "South Lakeland council approved it, the government office for the north-west called it in and the Secretary of State said no: a hell of a lot of work and a few hundred thou down the drain."

Drummond then shifted his attentions to the Junction One outlet mall in Antrim, Northern Ireland, which he was developing with Seamus and Frank Jennings' Cusp and Alistair Kennedy's Kennedy Group. But he never quite took his eye off Kendal and, one day, invited his Irish partners to have a look at it. "The big thing about them is they're not afraid to make decisions," he says. "After three hours on-site, Seamus turned round and said 'Let's do it'."

So Drummond went back to Realm's Colin Brooks - who had previously been in charge of the outlet business at MEPC. "Colin recognised we'd given it our best shot before and said he'd sell, but this time not subject to planning," Drummond remembers. "So we went ahead at a price that reflected some hope value. There was a strong income stream but the buildings were in a poor state."

And the process began again.

"We looked carefully at the reasons for refusal and went for mixed use," explains Drummond. "Consent was already in place to extend the retail from 23,000 to 35,000 sq ft plus storage so we arranged that in a ground floor mall. We kept the idea of two floors of underground parking and five catering units fronting the River Ken. The upper floors are now residential and offices - it's true mixed use."

But even having ticked all these planning boxes, the scheme had to go through a new round of public consultation with two three-day exhibitions. "I'm a great believer in consultation," he says. "You have to let people take the time to come to a view. But the costs are huge - our statutory fees alone were £100,000 and this one is now half-a-million pounds and rising.

"It's a brave game nowadays and that's why there's such a move for developers to form partnerships - it helps to spread the risks."

Now the scheme is under way, the marketing phase can begin. Rohleder Lumby and Realm are letting agents. "I thought as Colin Brooks had helped negotiate such a ridiculous amount of money, he'd better help make it work," jokes Drummond. Already, Clarks, the long-time anchor of the scheme, has agreed to come back and take 10,000 sq ft of outlet sales space and 2,500 sq ft of full-price retail. "We're talking to the existing tenants but we're also out in the market talking to new people," is all Drummond will say about the remaining space.

And he makes it clear the Guinea Group and its partners are in Kendal for the long haul. "You can never say anything's forever but we're not traders - we're mid-term hold investors. Of course, anything's for sale at the right price but if we sold it we'd only have to find something else to replace it."

occupier to developer

So how did John Drummond become one of the UK's leading exponents of outlet development? He started out on the occupier's side of the property fence, first at the John Lewis Partnership and then at confectionery manufacturer and retailer Barker & Dobson, as group property director.

In the early 1980s, Barker & Dobson set up its own property company looking to exploit opportunities in its 400-strong store portfolio, which included Oakeshott's supermarkets and the Lewis Meeson CNT chain. The company's London office was in Bruton Place in Mayfair, close to the Guinea pub, which has always been one of the property industry's favourite watering holes.

"I was in the pub with our chairman when we agreed the deal. He asked me 'What are we going to call the company?' And I looked up and there was the name."

But by 1985, Barker & Dobson had hit trouble and as part of the break-up of the business Drummond took the Guinea Group private. "We've got survivors' credibility if nothing else," he says.

In the mid-1980s, market towns were in vogue with both occupiers and investors, and Drummond targeted that niche market, with a specialism in converting listed buildings. The problem was that in order to stay clear of the competition, his policy was never to build closer than 120 miles of London, and his first two schemes were in Penzance and Dumfries. "I drove 82,000 miles that year," he recalls. "I didn't have a bed - I had a blanket in the car."

Over the next few years, Drummond built small schemes in Stranraer, Kirkcaldy, Inverness, Newcastle and High Wycombe (breaking his own geographical rule) and as the property boom rolled on, he moved up the size range, committing to the 150,000 sq ft Callendar Square in Falkirk in partnership with Rush & Tompkins.

"Rush & Tompkins was one of the first casualties of the property crash," he remembers ruefully. "The steel-work was up but work stopped and for two-and-a-half years, I had a half-built shopping centre, which was still accruing costs." But eventually, Drummond secured the funding to start again and built the scheme out, subsequently holding it for a number of years in partnership with the local authority.

Aware that demand for small-town retail was no longer there, Drummond began casting round for a new line of business. A couple of trips to the US had alerted him to the fact that outlet retail was a growth industry.

He brought the concept back to the UK and developed an outlet centre in Hartlepool in 1994, with financial backing from Schroders. He then developed in Clacton in partnership with Lend Lease and in Antrim with his Irish partners.

Even though outlet retailing in the UK is now a mature business, he's convinced the concept still has legs. "It's now an established part of the retail scene," he says. "As retailers get more and more efficient, we're finding there's less distressed merchandise. But a full-price garment now has a six-week shelf life: manufacturers' ability to churn out goods just in time is going to help outlets because buyers never get everything right."

He also believes the high cost of retail property in the UK helps the outlet sector. "The UK's an expensive place to run shops," he says. "Retailers can only afford to be on the high street when they're trading full-price. Therefore, they need somewhere else to get rid of surplus merchandise."

And for Drummond, outlets allow him to stay closer to his retail roots. "I like the closer relationship you have with retailers in an outlet. You get to know what they took last week, and that's where I started."

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