The Westgate Oxford Alliance, a joint venture between Land Securities and The Crown Estate, today confirmed preparatory works will begin imminently after pre-lets at the shopping centre reached 28% of available space.
The 800,000 sq ft retail and leisure scheme in the heart of Oxford city centre is due for completion in autumn 2017.
Squibb has landed the task of demolishing the southern part of the Westgate Centre, a multi-storey car park and existing residential accommodation.
Buckingham Group will carryout civils enabling works for the site.
This will make way for covered walkways of new retail space in major four blocks holding around 100 new shops, anchored by a major John Lewis department store.
The development is expected to generate up to 1,000 construction jobs and Sir Robert McAlpine, Brookfield Multiplex and Laing O’Rourke were all chasing the deal.
Robert Noel, chief executive for Land Securities, said: “Today we’ve taken a significant step towards creating our vision for a world-class retail and leisure destination in Oxford.