Positioned as a family-orientated destination, the scheme, which is located on Queen's Street - ranked fourth within the top city-centre pedestrianised areas in the country - attracts a whopping 14.5 million people a year despite being only approximately 145,000 sq ft in size.

The centre can be accessed via three entrances - the revamped £6m main entrance on Queen's Street, another on Working Street and the third via St David's Centre, which links into Queen's Arcade.

The new glazed frontage on Queen's Street was completed in February 2005. The design by Holder Mathias Architects saw the entrance extended further out onto the street, creating two larger units on either side of the main doors and increasing the Zone A rents. These units are now occupied by New Look's first concept store outside of London's Oxford Street, and the first Footlocker store in Wales. Since the new entrance was built, annual footfall has increased by 2 million.

General manager Mark Nott has been at the scheme since it was opened in April 1994. At the time Nott, who is ex-special forces, was the centre's security manager, but was promoted to general manager this year. He says: "Obviously, building a new entrance has helped with the tenant mix. Animal took two units and the Post Office opened their new concept store, which offers a service to the public and has been brilliant for generating footfall on the lower level."

He is also confident that the new St David's 2 development, which has now started on site, will be a major boost for Queen's Arcade once the works are complete in 2009. The city centre refurbishment will cover 13 ha and will be anchored by John Lewis.

"Over the next three years the works will affect the customer flow into the city centre," says Nott. "With Cardiff City Centre Partnership we've this year delivered a television ad campaign funded by all partners to combat the leakage of customers to other towns over that time.

"I believe the redevelopment will change the retail pitch in the city centre; it'll be focused more on the top end of Queen's Street, which is where we are. So it's a positive thing for us and we welcome the development. It's also very exciting for Cardiff as a whole."

Hudson & Hudson, which sells high-end women's fashion, recently moved from the Capitol shopping centre to open a unit in Queen's Arcade, in anticipation of the effect the new development will have on the scheme.

Nott was keen to have the new entrance completed before the works on St David's 2 started, and now he is looking forward to carrying out a £2m refurbishment of the interior, which is due to start next year. This will include replacing the ceramic floor tiles with a more modern floor, replacing the oak and brass balustrades with stainless steel to create contemporary lines, introducing new lighting to lift lighting levels and new signage, and removing the greenery and brass and mosaic-work in the eaves to create clean lines and a fresh, contemporary design.

"The whole idea of the refurbishment is to increase dwell time within the shopping centre by introducing plasma screens and other innovations," says Nott. "If we increase dwell time we should in theory increase customer spend. The overall plan is to slow the customer down with our design."

Currently customers travel within a 16- to 20-minute drive time to visit the centre, with people travelling in from the valleys and south-east Wales. Shoppers are all ABC1s with a high percentage of young customers aged 18 to 24, due to the attraction of New Look, which is currently the retailer's only store in Cardiff.

Looking ahead, Nott is very keen to do more on the environmental front. The centre currently recycles its waste, and the management team is in the process of completing a review of energy expenditure. "A saving will be made if we put passive infrared detectors on the fire exits which will only operate the lights when those exits are in use," says Nott.

"We are also in the early stages of looking at solar power. We'll do the review by the end of 2007 and deliver it by the end of 2008."

The next year or so will be a busy and possibly difficult time for Nott and his team, but there's no doubt that the future looks bright.

vital statistics

queen's arcade

Owner: Aldersgate

Managing agent: King Sturge

GLA: 145,000 sq ft

Non-food average spend: £38.20

Footfall (2006): 14.5 million

Anchor tenants: New Look, Argos, Disney Store, The Pier, Post Office

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