星空传媒

The former Flowers brewery in Cheltenham is blossoming once more following the opening of Salmon Harvester Properties鈥� new mixed use retail and leisure development. The 拢25 million scheme has rejuvenated the site, which has spent years blighted by contractual issues surrounding building work since Whitbread vacated the premises in 1999.

Anticipation was riding high as main contractor Galliford Try and m&e specialist EIC approached the final months of activity on the development. This was, if not set to change the face of Cheltenham, primed to enhance the town鈥檚 historic central features.

In a highly accessible and prominent town centre location adjacent to the inner ring road, the site is made up of approximately four acres with frontages on four main roads. Cheltenham itself provides easy access to both Bristol and the Midlands and has an healthy tourist appeal, which provides it with a steady flow of seasonal visitors, as well as its own retail catchment population.

Harvesting a new brew

The new Brewery shopping centre provides over 18 000 m2 of mixed retail and leisure accommodation split over two levels. The majority of the existing buildings on the site were demolished in the early stages of work back in 2004, although the Cupola Tower and maltings building facade 鈥� remnants of the old brewery 鈥� have been retained and integrated with the new build elements.

Demolition work carried out by Galliford Try included the existing brewery and eight-storey office building. Besides a 350-space multi-storey car park, the new development houses an 11-screen, 2000-seat multiplex cinema, a health and fitness club and numerous restaurants and retail outlets.

The retained tower forms a focal point within the central area of the development, while the overall contemporary design embraces the Maltings facade and incorporates the full height, double-glazed frontage of the new mall鈥檚 health and fitness club. The large glazed entrance facade is set back from the street beneath a canopy roof supported by a classical colonnade of columns. Two of the original red brick buildings with lantern roofs and a roof-top weather vane have been preserved and refurbished as part of the complex.

EIC started work on the site early in 2005. The contract was awarded to the company by main contractor Galliford Try on the basis of the quality and standard of work evident from previous contracts the two contractors have worked on together.

Finance director for EIC, Graham Lyall, will remember the contract as an exercise in co-ordination and communications as much as in mechanical and electrical installation: 鈥淎lthough we were responsible for the landlord鈥檚 m&e installation throughout the general mall, including all public throughfares and communal areas, there were separate and unrelated contractors working for each of the pre-signed tenants to carry out fit-out work in their specific units.

鈥淏esides liaising with Galliford Try and various consultants including fire alarm specialists, cctv system specialists and high voltage installation experts, we were also co-ordinating many outside contractors with whom we didn鈥檛 necessarily have any contractual agreements.鈥�

No services were allowed to cross any of the units tenanted by other individual parties, so they all had to be accommodated within the perimeter of the roof in order to penetrate through the ceiling at the required position.

鈥淗ealth and safety was, as always, a huge priority and had to be monitored at all times with such a wide mix of parties involved,鈥� stresses Lyall. 鈥淎s the services are passing through the mall at a high level above ground, potential risks are increased, so additional emphasis was placed on risk assessments and adopting appropriate methodology.

鈥淭he size of the site also added to the element of risk so we were constantly working to co-ordinate our operations, including a permit to work and area clearance system to avoid clashes and optimise efficiency,鈥� adds Lyall.

As the site combined old and new buildings, extra efforts were made with regard to the existing tower to avoid potential damage which could be inflicted at the point of m&e installation.

EIC carried out the installation of special services and fixtures specific to the mall. All lights within the landlord鈥檚 domain are controlled by pirs to reduce energy consumption. Also, all m&e services are fully automated and controlled from a management suite within the Cupola tower.

Four hv/lv substations are located around the building to serve the mall. These are installed inside ventilated rooms, which incorporate silencers to avoid any potential noise problems.

Lyall was pleased with the interaction resulting from the collaboration with Galliford Try: 鈥淭he team at Galliford Try is adept at communicating its own client鈥檚 needs while, at the same time, listening to what the m&e contractor has to say and taking that specialist guidance on board. EIC has a strong retail and leisure background and we were able to utilise our previous experience on this project and work closely with Galliford Try to ensure a successful handover within the targeted deadline.鈥�

With the new-look Brewery now open for business, the people of Cheltenham should be more than happy with their latest retail bonanza. It is thought that the complex will play a part in regenerating the lower High Street area of Cheltenham, with the possibility of up to 300 jobs being created in the process.