The development will be anchored by a 90,000 square foot Next Home and Garden store, creating a flagship close to the group’s headquarters in Enderby. Other retailers for the scheme are to be confirmed at a later date.
Everards has already secured conditional outline planning consent for its brewery, pub and restaurant development to be built on land owned by the company adjacent to its existing Castle Acres site on Soar Valley Way.
It is anticipated that both initiatives will be presented as detailed planning applications to Blaby District Council in the first half of 2015 with development planned for opening towards the end of 2017 creating up to 1,000 full time equivalent jobs.
'Exciting'
Richard Everard, chairman of Everards, said: “It is immensely exciting to be working alongside the excellent team at Next to promote our existing Castle Acres site for retail development – investing in our local economy and creating so many new jobs.
“This initiative dovetails extremely well with our plans for our new food and drink cluster at Soar Valley which, once delivered, will further develop and strengthen our fifth generation family company.”
Lord Wolfson, chief executive of Next, said: “This development will give Leicester access to the widest selection of Next products in the UK. Next is hugely supportive of this opportunity to create local jobs and give Leicester a stunning new architectural gateway development.”