With its inception in 2016, the proposals looked to develop the clients existing underutilised, brownfield retail site, at Grantham on the A1, into a new 107-unit Designer Outlet retail scheme. The scheme also looked to redevelopment the existing adjacent Superstore, to enhance the overall shopping experience and create an additional new large Homestore and Garden Centre, encompassing an overall site area of 25 acres. With this increase in retail space, an additional multi-storey car park is proposed to serve the larger customer numbers with the retail complimented by on site leisure units, customer services, toilets, management suite and a tourist information centre. The project focused on job creation, supporting the wider community with links to Grantham Town Centre, as well as a Community Hub to support the local college with future plans to develop potential links to a new adjacent station, hotels and business park. This scheme looks to be the catalyst to a wider 75-acre Northern Gateway to Grantham and the wider Lincolnshire and Norfolk counties.

The layout maximises the retail opportunity of the site for new concepts while siting these adjacent to the key retained buildings with circulation and segregated servicing routes. The overall Master-planning and design philosophy fed into the specific unit designs to look to create block character, to aid in navigation and place making while being dynamic and modern in form, creating a point of difference to many other pastiche designer outlet villages.
The scheme finally gained Outline Planning Permission in April 2022 and is expected on site in 2023.

Client: Downtown
Project: Downtown Grantham Designer Outlet
Project Value / Type: £125m