St David’s Cardiff is celebrating its 15th anniversary from when the £675m shopping destination transformed the city centre.
Opening on October 22nd, 2009, St David’s brought a nearly a million square feet of new prime retail space to the heart of Cardiff, occupying one third of the city centre and catapulting Cardiff to become one of the UK’s top shopping destinations.
The new St David’s regenerated Wales’ capital with a total of 1.4m sq ft of retail space and creating more than one and a half thousand jobs, as well as being home to more than 300 apartments with rooftop gardens above the shopping centre. The Grand Arcade, the main shopping mall within St David’s, is so vast, it could fit 29 double decker buses. The project works also included the construction of a new, award-winning library and public art scheme. Once open, St David’s welcomed a staggering 1.3 million visitors in the first week and 36 million visitors in its first year, generating an average of more than £1m a day.
With 180 stores, St David’s attracted popular high street retailers and designer brands – many of them coming to Wales for the first time including Kurt Geiger, Apple, All Saints, and Reiss. The scheme was anchored by John Lewis, Wales’ biggest department store and brand’s largest outside London.
Today, St David’s continues to bring firsts to Wales including The Ivy and a flagship ZARA store. Over the last year, restaurants Giggling Squid and Gaucho have made their Welsh debut alongside luxury beauty brand SpaceNK, experiential retail space CO.LAB and the newly opened home interiors brand Sostrene Grene.
Fashion brands Pull&Bear and Sosandar are also due to join the centre’s line up in the coming months.
But it’s not just the retail landscape St David’s has transformed. It’s also made a positive contribution to the local community; supporting people into work through Landsec Futures, a £20m social impact fund. This includes working with Cardiff-based charities Ahead Partnership and SAFE Foundation to provide education programmes and skills development opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. St David’s has supported more than 1,500 local people through its education and employment programmes, creating nearly £1m of social value for the Cardiff community. It also supports under-represented groups in Cardiff, including Pride Cymru, and joins with the community for its annual Christmas Toy Appeal to donate thousands of gifts to vulnerable people and charities each year.
St David’s owner Landsec is continuing to invest in Cardiff with plans underway for a new city square which will transform an underused part of the city centre, creating an open, safe space for families and a vibrant, cultural place for residents and visitors. The £17m scheme includes plans for new play places for families with a water fountain splash pad and park, performance space with staging, landscaping and cycle parking spaces as well as two new restaurants and kiosks.
Helen Morgan knows St David’s more than most. Originally hailing from Grangetown, in Cardiff, St David’s has always been home for Helen and was also the centre where she started her career in retail 23 years ago. After supporting the shopping centre’s opening in the role of marketing manager, Helen is now Centre Director of St David’s responsible for its daily management and operation.
She told us…..
“With Cardiff as my home city, I visited St David’s every weekend growing up. Over the years, St David’s has been a special place for my career as well as for me personally and I’m passionate about its success. Even today, it’s a place where my family and friends come to shop – as well as myself – which really drives me to see St David’s thrive and be a place Cardiff can be proud of.
The launch of St David’s was an extraordinary achievement for Cardiff and the resulting transformation has been a pleasure to be part of. We’re also celebrating 80 years of Landsec this year, so it’s even more fitting to be reflecting on our history here in Cardiff and looking ahead to the future because while 15 years is a milestone worth marking, we never stand still. The centre has continued to evolve and improve over time as we continue to bring new brands and new experiences to guests and are always investing in the future whether that’s supporting local charities and the community to plans for the new city square which will unlock even more of Cardiff’s potential.”
To celebrate its 15th anniversary, St David’s will be hosting a live DJ and prize giveaways worth £7,500 in the centre alongside a ‘crack the code’ competition on Saturday, 26th October. The first 1,500 guests will receive a £5 St David’s gift card as a birthday treat simply by joining the free St David’s PLUS+ members rewards club as well as the chance to break into a padlocked prize box with goodies including £150 to spend at Ivy Asia, Raging Bull, Shake Shack and more. The anniversary celebrations will take place from 10am-5pm, located on the upper level of the Grand Arcade – between Victoria’s Secret and River Island.
In addition, a photo gallery and timeline has been installed within St David’s to showcase the centre’s transformation over the years in the city – in place now.
For more details about St David’s including what’s on, opening hours, and details of its new PLUS+ members reward club, visit HERE
