There’s been a transformation at Central Retail Park, Falkirk.

The entire frontage of the retail park’s three flagship stores has been refitted, with the retailers trading throughout the works, which are now complete.

Curry’s, Tapi Carpets & Floors, and Halfords at Central Retail Park, Falkirk, have each benefited from works to overhaul the site. The external retrofit works, which covered 32,555sq ft. of retail space at the Workman-managed retail park, were project managed by Workman Building Consultancy and carried out by contractor Insite Group.

Works began in mid-January, and were timed to affect retailers as little as possible, taking place in the wake of the busy retail periods of the Christmas rush and January sales. Central Retail Park, one of Scotland’s premier shopping and leisure parks, attracts in excess of 8 million shoppers per year, according to Springboard footfall data, welcoming more than 550,000 visitors per month.

The popular scheme is anchored by brands such as Tesco, Dunelm, Next, M&S Food Hall and TK Maxx. Owned by Corona Vulcan Falkirk, it also includes a 12-screen Cineworld, large Bannatyne Health Club and a number of food and beverage outlets such as Starbucks, Nando’s and McDonald’s.

The original project scope was to remove the full front face of the building, including the apex canopy, which was made of brick and slate roofs, and refurbish it with new glass curtain walling and canopies. For electrical retailer Curry’s, security was a key issue, so the team altered the scope for the occupier, retaining the internal skin of the blockwork and using opaque glass instead of clear.

Brendan Magee, Partner at Workman, said: “This retrofit project has significantly improved the performance of Central Retail Park as well as the aesthetic of the building. By replacing the insulation with higher quality materials and also swapping lighting for LEDs, our client will reap long-term rewards from their investment into the future of the Falkirk scheme.”

Nicola Wright, Senior Building Surveyor at Workman LLP, said: “Collaboration with the Workman Property Management team was key to the success of the project. In advance of the works and also throughout the project, we held in-depth meetings and regular catch-ups with all the occupiers, not only those directly affected by the works, to communicate about the project and to ensure they had multiple opportunities to voice concerns and ask questions about what was taking place.”

The teams worked together to put in place traffic management measures for the public, and pedestrian management with crossings and clearly marked driving and walking routes while the works continued. Plenty of signage was also installed to let visitors know that all three of the retailers undergoing works were still trading throughout the project.

Workman property managers for the site, David McKay, Senior Associate, and Jonathan Crawford, Associate, attended progress meetings with the project management team on a fortnightly basis throughout the project. They also dealt with permits required from the council for noisy works, and the two teams have collaborated to ensure that all relevant insurances were kept up to date.

The project scope was subsequently expanded with an instruction to undertake new landscaping across 280 sq. metres to the front of the scheme, which is also now complete.

The new face of Central Retail Park, Falkirk:

Here’s how the scheme looked during the external retrofit project:

Here’s how the scheme looked prior to the  project:

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Find out more about Workman’s Retail & Leisure Property Management Services.