St. David's (Cardiff) - The Second Phase (St. David's 2)

The Second Phase (St. David's 2)

St. David's, and much of the southern end of Cardiff city centre's shopping area, was re-developed as part of the St David's 2 development.

The second phase (St. David's 2) was a £675m extension of the centre, in which a large part of Cardiff's south city centre was demolished. Demolished buildings included Oxford Arcade, St. David's Market, St. David's Link including the Cardiff Central Library, the NCP Tredegar Street multi-storey car park, the Wales National Ice Rink, the NCP Bridge Street multi-storey car park, and Toys "R" Us who relocated to Cardiff International Sports Village. The new development consists of 3 main buildings in total; a new Central Library building, which is built on part of the Marriott Hotel car park, the John Lewis department store, which is built on the former Wales National Ice Rink, and the main shopping area, which is built on the form Oxford Arcade, St. David's Link and western side of Bridge Street. It also includes apartments, called Hayes Apartments, above the main shopping centre.

The second phase is made up of different sections, they are:

• St. David's Walk, leading to the extension of Debenhams and the Grand Arcade. This part of the centre hosts The Fragrance Shop, The Blue Dot Gallery, Model Zone, Peacocks, Thornterns, Shoe Zone, Internationale, Select, Officers Club, Blue Inc, Principality, Suits Direct and debut Welsh stores for Footasylum, Krispy Kreme and Bijou Brigitte

• St. David's Way, The original part of St. David's, consisting of most flagship stores in the complex, including Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, British Home Stores & Boots as well as high street favourites such as Quiz, Pravins, Wallis, Watches of Switzerland, The Body Shop and Costa Coffee

• The Hayes, is the most stylish shopping strip in the city lined with designer boutiques and big names. The Hayes is home to stores such as Hugo Boss, Vans, All Saints, TM Lewin, Starbucks, H&M, Parkhouse Jewellers, Crabtree & Evelyn, Cath Kidson, Radley, Kurt Geiger, Links of London, Reiss, Fat Face, Crew Clothing, Jo Malone, Leia, LK Bennett and the prestigious Jamies Italian restaurant.

• Hayes Arcade with jewellery and accessory boutiques. You'll find names like Swatch, Thomas Sabo, Folli Follie, Ollie & Nic as well as L'Occitane in this fashionable arcade

• Grand Arcade, connecting St. David's Walk in the original centre to John Lewis. The Grand Arcade is split over two floors and is flooded with light from the impressive glass roof.

The Upper Grand Arcade is home to two Abercrombie brands Gilly Hicks and Hollister as well as a host of major stores such as Apple Store, H&M, Nike, River Island, Calvin Klein, Monsoon, Dwell, The North Face, Auntie Annes, Jane Norman, Clarks, G-Star RAW, Republic, USC, New Look, Mothercare, Deichmann Shoes, Blue Inc, Schuh, La Senza, Luke 1977, Claire's, Paperchase, Guess, GAP, Hush Puppies, Lakeland and JoJo Maman Bebe. The Upper Level is nearly 100% let with only 4 units remaining.

The Lower Grand Arcade is also well stocked with popular stores and brands such as Mango, Cult, Jack & Jones/Vero Moda, David & Goliath, Beaverbrooks, Goldsmith's, Crocs, Boots, Kamigata, Soletrader, Karen Millen, Warehouse, Oasis, Boux Avenue, Dune, Lego, Kingdom Of Sweets, Coast, Disney Store, Clas Ohlson, Sports Direct and many more.

• Eastside, is the restaurant and café quarter of the second phase of the centre. It is split over 2 levels, The Upper Eastside offers restaurants like Nando's, Pizza Express, T.G.I. Fridays, Cafe Rouge, Prezzo, ChimiChangas and the first Ruby Tuesday franchise in the UK and western Europe. The Lower Eastside offers smaller cafes such as Ed's Easy Diner, Spudulike, Muffin Break and the first Pret A Manger and YO! Sushi in Wales, other restaurants here such as, Cadwalader's Ice Cream, and Bellini's Express are businesses owned and operated in Wales.

• Working Street, part of the façade of St. David's Hall was converted into store fronts to better blend with the facade of the Working Street entrance of St. David's Centre. Peacocks and Bon Marche currently occupy these new units along with a Costa Coffee shop.

• The first Welsh branch of the John Lewis department store chain opened in 2009 and is the currently the largest John Lewis store in the UK outside London. The John Lewis department store opened four weeks before the St. David's Grand Arcade shopping area was opened.

St. David's 2 has added an extra 967,500 sq ft (89,880 m2) of retail space to the city centre, in addition to the 260,000 sq ft (24,000 m2) John Lewis department store, 9 other large stores, and a further 90 smaller shops in a two-tiered shopping mall have been built. It has also created 3,000 car parking spaces, new bars and restaurants plus the new 55,000 sq ft (5,100 m2) Central Library and 4,500 permanent jobs. The development has included 2 new arcades; Grand Arcade and Hayes Arcade to reflect Cardiff's historical Victorian arcades.

The project, that it set to make Cardiff one of the top five shopping destinations in the United Kingdom, topped out on 27 January 2009. Many of the retailers in the second phase of the centre are new to Cardiff, and to Wales, in particular John Lewis, Apple, Hollister, and Ruby Tuesday. St David's is now one of the busiest shopping centres in the European Union, exceeding Birmingham's Bull Ring.