{"id":2018,"date":"2015-04-29T09:28:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T09:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2015-04-29T10:46:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T10:46:23","slug":"lidl-revealed-as-connswaters-anchor-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/lidl-revealed-as-connswaters-anchor-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Lidl announces 15 jobs at Connswater"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future of the Connswater Shopping Centre\u00a0looks increasingly bright as\u00a0Lidl announces 15 new jobs as part of plans to\u00a0expand its presence\u00a0at\u00a0the retail park.<\/h2>\n

The development is a further boost for the retail park, whose future had been in doubt since both Tesco and Dunnes Stores pulled out at the end of February.<\/p>\n

Lidl said it will relocate within the retail park to a newly refurbished \u201cultra-modern\u201d 23,000 sq ft unit. The discounter has taken on a 25 year lease, and the store will be modeled on the recent openings in Lisburn\u2019s Bentrim Road and Belfast\u2019s High Street.<\/p>\n

The investment is expected create up to 15 new jobs for the local area if planning is approved.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/a>
Ryan Kee, director of retail agency at Lambert Smith Hampton, and Gerry Monaghan, manager of Connswater Shopping Centre and Retail Park, join Paul Gibson, sales operations executive for Lidl NI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The news comes as motoring accessories chain Halfords confirmed it will occupy one of the centre\u2019s 9,500 sq ft units on a ten year lease, while Carpetright has signed a lease on a 3,098 sq ft unit.<\/p>\n

Gerry Monaghan, manager of Connswater Shopping Centre and Retail Park, said: \u201cLidl\u2019s decision to plan for a significant expansion in the retail park is fantastic news for Connswater and for the local area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a major vote of confidence in the current store, in the staff they have and their loyal customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently we have seen retailers positively invest inside the centre, including Specsavers which responded to a rise in demand with a \u00a3300,000 expansion into a larger unit and Vodafone which opened a new concept store, a first for them in east Belfast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Gibson, sales operations executive for Lidl NI, said: \u201c\u201cWe see great potential in this location and are looking forward to enhancing the shopping experience at this branch.”<\/p>\n

East Belfast Alliance Westminster candidate Naomi Long\u00a0welcomed the news, describing it as\u00a0a “significant step” towards securing the centre’s future.<\/p>\n

“It reiterates the confidence retailers have in Connswater and is an important building block.\u00a0I would be hopeful further investment by other retailers will follow this news, and I will continue to work with Connswater management to support their plans to secure the future of the centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Newtownards Road retail park\u00a0is one of Northern Ireland’s oldest shopping centres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The future of the Connswater Shopping Centre\u00a0looks increasingly bright as\u00a0Lidl announces 15 new jobs as part of plans to\u00a0expand its presence\u00a0at\u00a0the retail park. The development<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Artist-impression-e1430299379231.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2028,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions\/2028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}