Hammerson opens The Rock in Bury
Published: 16 July, 2010
The Rock, a 620,000 sq ft retail and leisure scheme in Bury, near Manchester, opened on schedule today despite turmoil when the original developers Thornfield Ventures went into administration in January.
The £350m scheme to regenerate Bury’s central shopping district is one of the few major shopping centres to open this year and was developed by Hammerson – appointed by Deloitte - which had previously worked on projects including the Bullring, Birmingham and Highcross, Leicester.
Carolyn Kenney, project director at Hammerson said: “We had such a smooth transition [taking over from the original developers Thornfield] and it’s a testament to the quality and professionalism of the team that everything was done on time.”
Eighty-four per cent of The Rock’s floor area has already been let to retailers including anchor stores Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, six flagship stores and eight new restaurants, and over 90% is expected to be let by Christmas.
“The beauty of a summer opening is the run up to Christmas,” Carolyn Kenney added. “We are currently in discussion with a number of retailers so we’re keeping the pressure on the letting and hope to have a bunch of retailers signed up and trading by Christmas.”
The site, constructed by Laing O’Rourke, is big enough to fit 7-8 full size football pitches inside it and includes 1,250 car parking spaces and a leisure space comprising of a 1,700 seat Vue cinema and a bowling complex.
As part of the project artist Jo Fairfax and lighting design specialist Adam Spinos have created 24 interactive, time responsive light sculptures which are the focal point of The Rock’s main pedestrian area.
World record attempts, such as one to get the most amount of people playing air guitar in one place, and competitions will be staged throughout the day to mark the opening and traditional drumming group Reborn welcomed customers along with other entertainment.
