Selfridges, the department store group owned by Canadian billionaire Galen Weston, has awarded the prestigious first phase of the redevelopment of its flagship Oxford Street store to a joint venture between start-up Blue Sky Building and veteran contractor Sir Robert McAlpine.
Under a five-year, £300m plan additional retail space at the London store will be created by combining its 1909-built classical-style building and a later extension built at the rear. The construction value of the initial contract is worth around £75m, the biggest part of which will be a grand new entrance on the eastern side of the building. In total, retail floorspace will be increased by more than 10 per cent to about 580,000sq ft.
Parts of the Oxford Street building currently used as offices will be transformed into new areas for shopping. This will allow the luxury handbag department on the ground floor to more than double in size and become “the world’s largest destination for accessories”. Its office staff will move into Nations House, a neighbouring building Selfridges acquired last year for about £130m and which will be connected to the main store by a new tunnel.
In a statement, Selfridges’ owner described the multi-million pound scheme as “the biggest investment for a single project by a department store anywhere in the world”. Adding: “In the last 10 years Selfridges has grown from strength to strength and this significant investment in the redevelopment of our Oxford Street store is part of our commitment across all our businesses to provide leading luxury shopping experiences for our customers around the world.”
Selfridges, which opened in 1909 and whose history was dramatised last year in the British television series Mr Selfridge, was acquired by Weston in 2003 for a reported £628m.
In 2010 Selfridges beat Bloomingdale’s in New York to be named as the best department store in the world. The award, determined by executives and industry experts at America’s Global Department Store Summit, was unanimously presented to Selfridges after Saks Fifth Avenue was given the inaugural prize two years ago.
A start on the remodelling project — which received full planning permission from Westminster council in April — is thought to be imminent, with the store already working on a summer 2016 opening for its extended ground floor shopping area.
Securing such a prestigious contract will boost Sir Robert McAlpine’s reputation, which reported a £38m loss in 2013 following problems with a Caribbean project. It is the first major construction contract for Blue Sky Building, set up three years ago by Lend Lease’s former head of construction for England and Wales, Julian Daniel.
The joint venture decision is thought to have been made because of the project’s demanding timescale and, if delivered on schedule, will put the construction partnership in pole position for future contracts, including the £100m second phase.
