Mace celebrates construction milestone for Fenwick in Bracknell

Mace, along with the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership and Directors from Fenwick, celebrated the completion of the department store’s cladding earlier this week. The final piece of the highly engineered steel was lifted into place, visually completing the eye-catching architectural impact of the building. Fenwick is an anchor tenant at The Lexicon Bracknell, due for completion next year.

Clad in cast natural aluminium panels, the building features random perforations that form a waved pattern which act as a veil to the retail activity beyond. These perforated panels are specially back-lit which create a markedly different experience through the day and at night.

The Lexicon Bracknell is being developed by The Bracknell Regeneration Partnership (“BRP”), a 50:50 joint venture between Legal & General Capital (“LGC”) and Schroder UK Real Estate Fund (“SREF”), working in partnership with Bracknell Forest Council (“BFC”). Now 70% pre-let (by floor area), The Lexicon Bracknell will fundamentally change the landscape of Bracknell Town Centre when completed, more than doubling the square footage of the current retail offer with the inclusion of a further 580,000 sq. ft. of new retail, dining and leisure.

The Bracknell Regeneration Partnership also revealed the opening date for The Lexicon Bracknell as 7 September 2017. Opening at that time, the launch of The Lexicon will coincide with the strongest retail trading period of the year, ensuring a robust kick-start and trading period for the scheme to establish itself.

Mace Project Director, Carl Wright, said: “This is a major construction milestone for the project and we’re now focused on finishing the high quality store, ready for handover to Fenwick in just a few weeks’ time. With less than 12 months to go until The Lexicon Bracknell opens, the team is working hard to deliver an outstanding, rejuvenated town centre for the public to use and enjoy.”                                          

Harry Pickering, Investment Manager for Schroder UK Real Estate Fund, commented: “Momentum is really building on the project as we enter the final 12 months ahead of opening. With seven new lettings announced in the past month alone, The Lexicon Bracknell is well on the way to becoming the shopping and leisure destination of choice in Berkshire, when it opens in under 12 months’ time.

Hugo Fenwick, Trading Director of Fenwick, said, “We are delighted to be opening our first new Fenwick in over a decade at The Lexicon Bracknell. This façade is a real feature of this store and will form a dramatic backdrop to the Lexicon creating a markedly different experience during the day and at night. It is excellent that the construction of the scheme is progressing well alongside the breadth of tenants that have recently signed up .We look forward to commence fitting out our store in earnest later this autumn in readiness for launch in 2017. ”