Old Market Shopping Centre Delayed For 2 Weeks!

[Bill Thomas]

Was the completion date originally June?

 

Read post 24 HERE, according to the BBC's website they are 3 weeks late.

[Alex]

I did not think for one minute it would be open on time, looks nowhere near finished at the moment.

[Cambo]

This is the view you get of the OLM if you live up @the collage area!

[Biomech]

Quite industrial / farmers large shed looking with all that silver isn't it

[Cambo]

Yea it does Biomech & last night I noticed one of your comments mentioned "What they mean is farmers and industrial business owners. There's no money in Hereford."

So maybe that's why it looks like it does,cos they want the farmers & industrial business owners to feel like there still @ work,even when there out shopping??

[Denise Lloyd]

Interesting your perception of farmers.  I wonder where you perceive the food on your table comes from! 

[dippyhippy]

Crikey!

 

It doesn't matter from which direction you view The Five Pointless Points, they still look incredibly ugly.

 

I have always been an advocate of the aesthetically healing properties of a well stocked and colour co-ordinated hanging basket!

 

Sadly, there is no floral arrangement in the world that can camouflage that!

[Biomech]

Interesting your perception of farmers.  I wonder where you perceive the food on your table comes from! 

 

 

Not quite sure who that was aimed at or what it's supposed to mean :P

[SON OF GRIDKNOCKER]

As m'learned friend Two Wheels will probably confirm, the five metal pointy bits are supposed to be a humourous architectural allusion to the 'saw-tooth' roofs which surmounted the auction sheds in the old cattle market.  They are also known as North Lights 'cause they pointed north, thus letting in the very minimum amount of sunlight.  Unfortunately, the architectural numpty who ordained the construction of the new pointy roofs obviously didn't have his compass with him, 'cause they don't face north.  Drrrrr!

[twowheelsgood]

Grid knocker is correct, and, not only do they not face north, but they don't let any light in either! The gables face due south and when the sun comes out they'll produce enough glare to temporarily blind drivers and burn the paint off passing cars. 

[Cambo]

Apologise Denise I thought the food on my table came from Morrisons?… I had no idea it came from farms, from all over the world, let alone a lot of it from out of the ground!!

Joking apart thou it was not my intention to make you think I was doing down farmers far from it, i have met a few & i can tell you that i generally find them to be the salt of the earth!

I was just trying to get into Stanhope's mindset, as to there thinking behind the design, for the OLM?…unfortunately I couldn't come up with any sensible reasoning as to why it looks like it does??…

[Ubique]

Mrs Ubique wants to know if she should get her "wedding hat" out of its hat box and wear it at the opening ? Glenda can you assist please , are you wearing at hat for the opening ?

[Denise Lloyd]

Yes a hard hat would be the most suitable attire.  

[Denise Lloyd]

Damn I had not finished Cambo no offence taken I had had a deeply disturbing Saturday and was feeling very  over sensitive. Mind you I do get pxxxxxx off with the farmer knocking that goes on they are not all bad. I would imagine getting into the heads of either the Council or Stanhope would be nigh on impossible they are both so money driven and have little time or interest in us commoners. 

[Glenda Powell]

I am not sure if I will be in Hereford to attend the opening, but if I attend I will not be wearing a hat!

[Cambo]

Thank you Denise glad to hear your over your sensitivity. Yes your right, try as I might I couldn't get into the mindset of Stanhope or the council it was of such an intellict, that of the like, that i've never encountered before?…I can only say this it was neither of genius or brilliance but that of sheer madness!!

[YourHerefordshire]

Rumours that Eli Goulding is to open Debenhams we are being informed are untrue and merely speculation as her sister works at Debenhams in Gloucester. The Hereford Mayor will be opening Waitrose.

 

I also notice that the HT have removed quite a few comments from their original headline including some from HV... they have merely created a new update topic but the old one has gone.

Her sister has a job at Debenhams, Hereford.

 

Speculation obviously but Debenhams are still pushing to open on the 17th.

[ragwert]

I am not sure if I will be in Hereford to attend the opening, but if I attend I will not be wearing a hat!

Oh the hypocracy 

[twowheelsgood]

Oh, the spelling - hypocrisy.

[bobby47]

A 'soft opening'. That's the expression the suits are now shovelling around. A bloody 'soft opening'. Bloody pointless management speak. They've infested every single tier of our social fabric. Bloody 'soft opening'!

[dippyhippy]

That sounds more like a medical term - and not a very pleasant one either!

[ragwert]

Oh, the spelling - hypocrisy.

[Biomech]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but May the 9th is the day after the May Fair leaves right?

So how's this all going to work with Fair lorry parking, rides, construction equipment, workforce in the road etc etc? I;m guessing that no one has thought about the logistics.

 

And, as I point out in another thread. 

How are all of those oversized fair rides and lorries going to get out of the new Kings Street pathway?

[megilleland]

From Council Newsroom 16th April 2014

 

Old Market’s first stores will open in time for May Bank Holiday - Published on behalf of Stanhope

   

Stanhope, the developer of the £90 million Old Market in Hereford city centre, is delighted to confirm that the first shops will open their doors on Thursday 1 May. Due to accelerated works on site, including night working and an increased workforce, the construction team has been able to condense the works programme to allow the first stores – including Debenhams and Waitrose – to open in time for the public to enjoy over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

 

This initial opening will be followed by a series of individual store openings over subsequent weeks and months, culminating in a celebration event over several days in August.

 

Old Market had originally been targeting an opening date of 17 April, but was forced to move the date earlier this month when the project was unable to recoup the time that had been lost as a result of the extreme weather conditions at the beginning of the year, among other things. However, developer Stanhope and lead contractor, Sir Robert McAlpine are still on track to open in advance of the actual contract programme.

 

Gary Bourne, Director at Stanhope, comments,

 

“With just a matter of weeks to go before the doors of Old Market’s first stores open, we are extremely excited and eager to let the people of Hereford see this new £90m investment in their city, which has been some time in the making but is now in arm’s reach! When we were forced to revise the opening from 17 April, we set 9 May as an appropriate revision, but given the pace at which work has progressed recently, we are delighted to now bring this forward to allow some retailers to open their doors earlier. All hands are to the pump and we look forward to the first retailers opening on 1 May.â€

 

The development will raise Hereford city centre into the ranks of the Top 100 retail destinations in the UK for the first time and is the only major new retail-led development that will open in the UK this year. It will provide Hereford with a huge Debenhams department store, complete with its own restaurant and a 23,000 sq ft Waitrose that will offer a café along with a delicatessen, bakery and meat, fish, cheese counters and Waitrose Delivery Services.  

 

Later in May, the city’s first fully digital six-screen Odeon cinema will launch, providing a vastly improved evening economy for the city alongside a host of restaurants offering cuisines from Italian to Mexican. The confirmed dining line-up comprises Zizzi, Frankie & Benny’s, Miller & Carter, Nando’s, Chimichanga, Costa and Prezzo, with more names in very advanced negotiations.

 

With a retailer list that includes TK Maxx, Next, H&M, Outfit, L’Occitane, Fatface and Clarks and a run of sought-after new names currently being signed up to take the smaller store units, the development is now 93 per cent pre-let or under offer by square footage. This is an exceptionally high level compared with other new complexes built in recent years.

 

Old Market has been developed by Stanhope in close partnership with Herefordshire Council and was refined on the back of the input of hundreds of local people and the local business community following extensive public consultation. In 2012, British Land forward funded the scheme in the first such deal to have happened nationally since 2008, underlining the confidence felt nationally, both in Old Market and in Hereford as a key trading location.

 

The development will bring about 1,100 jobs and will provide the missing links in Hereford’s retail and leisure offer to allow people to remain in Hereford, avoiding trips to competitor shopping locations across the region. The effect of this is expected to raise Hereford’s shopper population by over 155,000 people, which could help boost the city turnover by some £100m. 

 

 

[Biomech]

"With just a matter of weeks to go.......and a run of sought-after new names currently being signed up to take the smaller store units"

 

 

I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

 

As for

 

" the development is now 93 per cent pre-let or under offer by square footage. This is an exceptionally high level compared with other new complexes built in recent years."

 

 

Well that's just pure bullshit spin. Doesn't really count when your base consists of current users moving premises.