Shopping Centres
Livingston has three major shopping centres, and another three medium large retail parks and a cluster of small local stores located throughout the different areas.
The first phase of Almondvale Shopping Centre was completed in 1976 to facilitate the needs of the local residents and workers. The first major refurbishment was completed in 1988 by Land Securities. During the refurbishment, the centre was extended by 230,000 sq ft (21,000 m2) in 1996, creating phase 2 of the already very successful development, bringing the size of the centre to over 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m2).
In early 1999, construction started on phase 3 of the development with the construction of McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Centre, (now renamed to Livingston Designer Outlet in 2007) and was opened in October 2000, with other work continuing into 2001. During this time, Asda Wal Mart constructed a new supercentre in place of the old Asda Almondvale Shopping Centre. This supercentre is the largest of its kind in Europe. This development opened up over 80 new shops, 20 bars and restaurants, a fitness Suite, 4,000 new car parking spaces and an 8 screen Vue Cinemas cinema complex. In early 2007, another 15 shops were constructed within the centre replacing the "At home" area. Many businesses within this unit never re-opened in a new single unit.
Phase 4 of the development started in March 2007 which saw the old Safeway, (which had been closed since Morrisons built their new store in October 2006) demolished along with its car park. The car park between Almondvale Shopping Centre and the Designer Outlet was also removed. In its place, the new development was constructed until its opening in October 2008. Phase 4 was originally intended to be called 'The Elements', however Land Securities changed the name to 'the centre' in early 2008. Land Securities also renamed the Almondvale Shopping Centre to 'the centre' with the opening of the new development on 16 October 2008.
The centre contains 35 shop units, with Marks & Spencer and Debenhams as anchor stores. Within this development, there will be socialising areas, bars, restaurants and a Winter Garden, bringing the Almondvale Centre Development to over a million sq. ft. The old Safeway carpark has been developed into a 3-storey car park providing another free 1500 spaces, with a state-of-the-art security system.
Read more about this topic: Shopping In Livingston
Famous quotes containing the words shopping and/or centres:
“Shopping seemed to take an entirely too important place in women’s lives. You never saw men milling around in men’s departments. They made quick work of it. I used to wonder if shopping was a form of escape for women who had no worthwhile interests.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“We all have—to put it as nicely as I can—our lower centres and our higher centres. Our lower centres act: they act with terrible power that sometimes destroys us; but they don’t talk.... Since the war the lower centres have become vocal. And the effect is that of an earthquake. For they speak truths that have never been spoken before—truths that the makers of our domestic institutions have tried to ignore.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)