New Morpeth Store Handed Over to Morrison’s Ready for a Summer Opening

New Morpeth Store Handed Over to Morrison’s Ready for a Summer Opening

21 March 2013

The impressive new 50,000 sq ft supermarket at Low Stanners in Morpeth has been officially handed over to Morrison’s this week in preparation for a summer opening.

After 18 months of construction work the main contractors Tolent have handed the building over to the supermarket’s fit out team Wooler who have started work on the interior of the new store.  This phase of work is expected to take three months and will be followed by merchandising ready for opening in the summer.

The store has been delivered by Dransfield Properties Ltd. With a sales area of 25,000 sq ft, it will boast an impressive modern design incorporating Morrison’s unique Market Street fresh food counters including butchers, bakers and fishmongers. 

The building has been carefully designed by the Sanderson Arcade Architects WCEC using high quality materials and sympathetic architecture.

High quality public realm work has also been incorporated on this gateway site to the town centre, including a new water column fountain sending water cascading four metres into the air.

An attractive landscaping scheme is also currently being completed and a covered walkway from the entrance has been created linking the new store to the town centre.

As well as answering the need for a new town centre foodstore the development has also created a 283 new short stay car parking spaces and 296 lower deck long stay spaces – 121 of the long stay spaces are additional town centre spaces.  

The lower deck car park has now been handed over to Northumberland County Council and will cater for staff working at shops and offices in the town centre to free up spaces for visitors and shoppers – creating greater foot flow into the town.

The new long stay car park is fully lit and will cost £2 per day; it is being managed by Northumberland County Council.

As well as creating additional car parking in the town the new development has also delivered £185,530 of flood defence works and a further investment of around £50,000 has been spent on upgrading pedestrian links to the town centre.

The Cotting Burn has been re-aligned and a new footway has been created alongside – opening up this part of the river bank for walkers.

Retail Property Director at Dransfield Properties, Andrew Malley, said: “This has been a complex development with many different factors to take into account. Our design team has worked hard to create strong pedestrian linkages between the new food store and the town centre.

“We have sought to create a building that is not only modern and functional but respects the architectural integrity of the town and we hope that people will agree that it adds to Morpeth’s standing as Northumberland’s county town.

“We are confident that the creation of new long and short stay car parking spaces will be a real benefit to the town and help Morpeth continue to grow as a shopping and visitor destination.”

Staff at the existing Morrison’s Morpeth store will transfer to the new store when it opens and new local jobs are also being created.

For further information about Dransfield Properties visit the website at www.dransfield.co.uk

For further information, contact:

Public Relations Department, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel: 01226 360644
Email: pr@dransfield.co.uk