River Island doubles size of Intu Lakeside store

River Island has doubled the size of its Intu Lakeside store to 21,000 square feet following owner Intu’s 72 million pound investment to transform the popular shopping destination.

Intu’s multi-million pound, 175,000 square foot leisure-led expansion is expected to open later this year, and has seen a number of brands such as Zara, H&M and Next upsize their stores. In March, Zara opened one of its largest stores in the country there, and Intu Lakeside’s tenants have invested around 9 million pounds on new stores, refits and refurbishments in the first months of 2019. A total of 28 million pounds has been spent over the last two years. The expansion is expected to boost footfall by more than 2 million people, according to CACI.

Frances Baker, property director at River Island, said: “River Island is delighted to have doubled the size of its current retail space at Intu Lakeside. The combination of a loyal and high spending customer base, vibrant retail mix and the enhanced leisure offer make it the perfect location to create a new and exciting flagship.”

Rebecca Ryman, regional managing director at Intu, added: “We’ve invested millions to create even more opportunities for retailers and leisure operators to flourish at what is already one of the country’s most popular shopping destinations.

“More and more brands are investing at Intu Lakeside because they know they will perform so well here, with River Island the latest big name to select the centre for one of its largest ever sites.”

Photo credit: Intu