The 700,000-sq ft retail and leisure destination due to open this autumn has secured a raft of new brands with over 40 per cent of committed retailers, restaurant and leisure operators new to Aberdeen.

Union Square includes a main covered mall beneath a glazed atrium alongside a premium retail park, making it the first combined retail offer of this kind in Scotland. The scheme is integrated with Aberdeen’s transport hub combining the train and bus stations which are used by over 2.5m passengers a year.

Marks & Spencer will anchor the scheme with a 52,000-sq ft unit which will be the retailer’s second central location in Aberdeen. The new Union Square store will be M&S’s main food offer for the city and will also carry its popular homeware range.

Alongside Marks & Spencer, other high street favourites already committed to the retail park element include Next, Clarks, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Warehouse, Miss Selfridge and Burton.

The main fashion mall will be home to retail units including New Look, H&M and Zara. On the upper level, ASK and Nandos alongside Jurys Inn and Cineworld complete the leisure element of the scheme.

Sheila King, Hammerson’s director of retail leasing, said: “Aberdeen has a high spending catchment, and there are a number of retailers who don’t currently have brand presence in the city. Union Square offers well proportioned retail space in the centre of the Aberdeen and retailers clearly recognise that this is an excellent opportunity.”