Detailed plans submitted for new John Lewis store

DETAILED plans for the new John Lewis department store at New Street Station have been submitted to Birmingham City Council.

The application outlines plans for the new 250,000 sq ft store to be located on the south side of the redeveloped station. The plans will also see the upgrade of the Pallasades Shopping Centre above the station.

The store contains four floors of retail, each approximately an acre in size, with delicately patterned glass walls. The concept has been designed by Foreign Office architects, the creative team behind the redevelopment of the railway station.

The £100m development will create 900 new jobs for the wider economy, including 650 jobs at the department store itself, which is scheduled to be one of the partnership’s largest outside of London.

Andrew Skidmore, programme sponsor for Network Rail, said: “The rebuilding of Birmingham New Street is well underway and is set to deliver the first benefits to passengers when phase one completes at the end of next year.

“The project will also deliver huge economic benefits to Birmingham by opening up the city for regeneration.”

The planning application follows a public exhibition in March which more than 1,650 people visited and left over 300 comment cards.

Network Rail said the feedback showed people were strongly supportive of the project for the jobs it would bring to the city and that the redesign of the station was also popular.

Network Rail is pursuing the planning application on behalf of Birmingham City Council which owns the Pallasades Shopping Centre. If planning approval is granted, it will construct the new department store alongside the rebuilding of New Street station.

Subject to planning approval, the new department store will open in 2014.