Princesshay fever

If you’re looking for a family day out or luxury shopping trip, you could be forgiven for bypassing poor old Exeter. Following extensive bomb damage in 1942, much of the city was rebuilt in depressingly uniform post-war style. Indeed, nothing much had changed in the tired shopping district, with its ugly 1950s concrete blocks… until now.

Exeter’s Princesshay scheme represents the biggest single regeneration investment in the city’s history. The developer, Land Securities, has been working with Exeter City Council to deliver a vibrant city centre revamp, along with a new shopping centre. The development, which has been completed just this month, will ensure Exeter is no longer left on the shelf by tourists in favour of more energetic regional cities such as Plymouth and Bristol.

The main focal point is the newly built Princesshay Square, which has the lively, al fresco ambience of a continental plaza. Several new restaurant chains offer casual European dining from tapas to the latest Italian cuisine.

M&E specialist MJN Colston, which won the contract for new-build shell services, also fitted the outdoor lighting. Within the square, the customary utilitarian public benches are shunned in favour of large, frosted-glass pebbles set with colour-changing LED formations.

“It has added a big facility to Exeter,” says MJN Colston’s project manager Andy Wayland. “I spoke to the city centre manager and his view is that they don’t want the 10 pints of lager and kebabs, they want the families and the restaurants and the wine.”

The piazza also houses an iconic two-storey structure known as the Pavilion Building. Its distinctive blue-glass facade features screen-printed designs by artist Katayoun Pasban Dowlatshahi, inspired by the architecture of Exeter Cathedral.

This convergence of innovation and tradition is characteristic of the new Exeter. Throughout the construction, builders had to circumvent the original city wall. Built in Roman times, it adds character to the modern district.

Princesshay is not a shopping mall in the conventional sense. Joined together by various spines, its large range of stores can be accessed via glass-roofed outdoor thoroughfares, creating a bright, breezy high street atmosphere. The city’s traditional main shopping streets have also been revamped.

In total, 40 retailers have signed up to the centre. A four-storey Debenhams store dominates, promising shoppers a state-of-the-art experience. Services include a personal shopper suite and nail bar. Clothing giant Next comes in close second, occupying a 43 000 ft2 unit.

Other smaller stores lend a distinctly middle class charm to the surroundings, including quintessentially English fashion store Crew Clothing Co, organic skincare retailer Neal’s Yard Remedies and contemporary florist Stem.

MJN Colston’s involvement began in October 2005. The £6 million m&e contract was a design-and-build, covering all core landlord services for the new retail centre. I follow Wayland down into a rather dismal basement. Huge trays full of boxed goods clatter past and are hoisted into industrial lifts, presumably reappearing on the shop floor.

The back-of-house services may not present the most glamorous of fit-outs, but as Wayland points out, the area houses everything that enables the shop units to live, including gas mains, a control room for the 180 CCTV cameras within the complex and services that allow the stores to hook into fire alarms.

Although MJN Colston is not responsible for Princesshay’s 90 new loft-style residential units, Wayland dutifully shows me around anyway. One-bed apartments start from £150 000. Completion will be at a later date, and the interior walls have not yet been put in.

I ask whether some are studios. Wayland looks perplexed. With the same no-nonsense approach he applies to project management, he replies: “So that’s what a studio is? Why don’t they just call it a bedsit?”

During the design stage, the m&e team made use of a web-based solution called 4Projects, a centrally maintained information management system which ensures project information is available 24/7 to all team members.

The actual installation commenced in June 2006. The work was arranged into blocks, and the Chapel Street side of the development was opened as far back as Easter this year. The team’s overall completion date was the end of July, and everything came in on time and budget.

“It has been a big co-ordination exercise,” admits Wayland, “but I’ve had an extremely close relationship with the client and the main contractor, which is the most crucial thing on a project of this scale. It’s great when everything’s open door and there’s nothing you’re afraid to talk about, explore or develop.”

The policy is evidently a sound one. Before winning the Princesshay contract, MJN Colston worked with main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine for six years on the Eden Project, the large-scale environmental complex in Cornwall.

The quest for sustainable solutions did not end at Eden. To make the Princesshay centre more energy-efficient, MJN Colston focused on the lighting, installing an intelligent building control system by Satchwell.

“We put in as many provisions to control the lighting as possible, and we’ve used as much low-energy lighting as we can. But there always has to be a compromise,” says Wayland.

“It’s retail, which means all the shops are going to have their lights on all night just so you can see a nice handbag in the window. How can you be worried about the environment and keep shop lights on all night? A hell of a lot of companies just pay lip service to the idea of an environmental policy.”

The project was specified within tight deadlines, so the team opted for Mita’s Wibe ladder-rack solution to save on labour time.

Mita’s business development manager, Steve Davis, explains: “Conventional ladder racks can take a lot of nuts and bolts to join together. Our solution is flexible, adaptable and you don’t have to put so many fixings in.”

Wayland agrees: “It’s still a two-man job, but you can put the brackets up a lot more quickly. The service was good as well, as a lot of the parts were already kept in stock.”

Utility cables, including the 11 000 V distribution throughout the site and shop unit supplies, are accommodated on Mita’s product. This adds up to almost

2 km of ladder rack, with a value of £20 000. “It’s all hot-dip galvanised, as we wanted quality,” says Wayland. “And it’s really sturdy, so it doesn’t get damaged in the breeze.”

The team used as much bracketry prefab as possible, with Unistrut cutting their metal support systems to length at the factory. “We also use flexible kit, like Schneider’s lighting busbar, and that’s proved a huge success,” enthuses Wayland . “Really, this project is branded Schneider. We used their switchgear, switchboards, busbar and trunking.”

One of the main challenges faced by MJN Colston arose from the site’s location. A hectic, built-up city centre is hardly the most convenient place to be manoeuvring, offloading and storing truckloads of heavy equipment.

“There was no parking on site for any vehicles, and making sure that deliveries were phased and co-ordinated was quite a task,” admits Wayland.

The team used a local wholesaler, Edmundson, for as many of the materials as possible. “They brought the products in as and when we needed them, and we had a close relationship with the manager,” Wayland explains.

Overall, the project has proved a big success, which Wayland firmly attributes to quality home-grown labour. Apprentice training has always been important to MJN Colston. “We’re a bit unique, because we train a lot of our own workforce. I’ve been with Colston since I was 16 – so that’s 36 years now.”

But surely there were a few mishaps along the way, as with any project of this size? With hindsight, what would Wayland have done differently?

“What, me personally?” he replies mischievously. “I’d have become a brain surgeon or a dentist!”