A new retail development inspired by some of the world’s greatest piazzas and arcades -- Melrose Arch Shopping – will provide a cosmopolitan 28,000m2 retail and leisure space at the trendy mixed-use precinct in Melrose Arch , Johannesburg.

Developed by Melrose Arch Development Company, the R1 billion new open-air retail development combines traditional high street shopping and retail centres. Weatherproof, while not enclosed, Melrose Arch Shopping will have anchor store placement in line with sound retail principles while maximising the use of natural light and space.

 “Inspired by international shopping streets such at Regent Street in London and Grafton Street in Dublin and squares such as the Piazza del Campo in Sienna, Melrose Arch Shopping will be the nucleus of the Melrose Arch mixed-use retail, office, residential and leisure precinct that forms a genuinely integrated urban experience,” says Melrose Arch Development Company director Nicholas Stopforth. Melrose Arch Shopping has already secured anchor retailers; Woolworths, Truworths and all 14 Foschini brands.

“Melrose Arch Shopping encapsulates much of the current trends that I have seen on my travels and that I see customers responding to on a daily basis. It’s modern, stylish, vibrant, exciting and all of these add up to creating a fantastic platform from which to get people to go shopping,” enthuses Paul Simpson of Woolworths. In developing this novel retail concept, leading retailers and anchor tenants also participated in the conception of Melrose Arch Shopping, in consultation with the developers team.

“We were very pleased that Melrose Arch Development Company and Retail Africa were prepared to consult with the retailers in the design of this unique development. This allowed us to cluster our brands in the most suitable locations and anchor the home décor and fashion component with Woolworths and Truworths in what we believe will be a unique high street shopping environment,” Neville Budge of Foschini Group

Integrating seamlessly with the existing Melrose Arch movement patterns and the superbasement parking, Melrose Arch Shopping creates natural movement desire lines which connect the two high energy public squares – the existing Melrose Square and The Piazza of Melrose Arch Shopping. The Piazza is a subtly tiered urban square, with a landmark campanile, creating an open-air theatre for performing arts such as opera, music festivals and plays. It will, like Melrose Square, be a vibrant public meeting place in a traditional urban context.

The two squares will be linked through the ‘high fashion’ walkway of Slip Street and the extended High Street. Melrose Shopping will form, the heart of the Melrose Arch mixed-use urban experience. Michael Mark of Truworths explains that when looking at Melrose Arch Shopping “instead of seeing the new retail development as an entity in a broad sense, we looked at the whole precinct and we said ‘right in the middle of that development is the obvious place that people would expect to find a fashion centre which is the prime attraction for most malls’.”

In line with the Melrose Arch philosophy and traditional high street shopping principles, Melrose Arch Shopping features colonnaded retail edges for restaurant and entertainment use. It will place emphasis on the human scale at street level, encouraging comfortable interaction of pedestrian retail interface. Melrose Arch Shopping will also be married with a similar amount of offices. The offices, whilst sharing retail frontage, will have dedicated entrances thus integrating the office and retail experience, with additional access from the basement.

“The architecture of Melrose Arch Shopping will continue the existing Melrose Arch measured ‘contemporary African’ expression characterised by the use of first world and natural materials, which enhances the powerful Melrose Arch brand,” notes Stopforth.

Earthworks are already underway and will be completed by December with construction beginning in early 2007. Opening scheduled for September of 2008.

Issued on behalf of: Melrose Arch Development Company
Nicholas Stopforth
Tel: 011 684-1655

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Bronwen Noble :082 855 4349