THE latest technology will place Croydon at the cutting edge of the retail revolution once the £1.4billion regeneration of the Whitgift shopping centre is complete.
Under the banner of the Croydon Partnership, Westfield and Hammerson have submitted an enhanced planning application to ensure the town becomes one of the UK’s top 10 shopping and entertainment destinations.
John Burton, Westfield’s development director, said the latest innovations would provide local people with a facility “well beyond their expectations and dreams”.
“Both our companies invest in research to deliver the latest innovations and technical solutions for the customers and the retailers,” said Mr Burton who, along with Hammerson’s director of retail development Robin Dobson, will discuss how the town’s new retail core will thrive despite the rise of online shopping at the Develop Croydon Conference on Tuesday, November 22
“Our whole approach towards digital, making our retailers work more closely with their customers, the way in which we facilitate click and collect, the way in which we help retailers showcase and webcase their products, are all part of that equation. I see it as a big opportunity.
“You can expect that when this opens it will be at the forefront, not just in terms of the physical environment but the technological back-up for that. If our centres weren’t the quality or the trendsetters that they are, people wouldn’t come to them and would rely on online shopping.”
The new centre will be much more than a shopping mall, with entertainment and dining also featuring heavily.
“Once upon a time you could build a shopping centre off the back of a 99 per cent fashion offer with a little bit of homeware but that generation passed us by quite a number of years ago,” Mr Burton added.
“The cinema offer began to evolve and we have taken the food offer to a whole new level so that it now takes up around 20 per cent of the floorspace.
“The constant evolution is one of the great differentiators in our product because we think about it from the outset, we think about how we can continuously evolve these centres – not just at the point of opening but years afterwards.
“We want to develop something Croydon people very rapidly build a huge affinity for – for the way it’s managed, for the fact it’s safe and secure and that it caters for a huge range of ages.
“We want it to provide them with something well beyond their expectations and dreams in terms of the breadth of the experience, the food, the fashion, the offer.”