Bridgend‘s designer outlet is planning its biggest change in years — nine new shops, a striking new anchor store and an open-air square where part of the car park now stands.
Shoppers arriving from the southern car park would be greeted by a tall, timber-fronted building with a glass gable rising above the rest of the village — a deliberate landmark to match the cinema end of the centre, which currently gets all the attention.
In front of it, a new public square would replace rows of parking with trees, flower beds, benches and stepped seating — somewhere to sit with a coffee rather than dodge cars on the way in.
The plans, drawn up for centre operator McArthurGlen, add 2,000 square metres of shopping space: eight new units of around 170 square metres each and one big anchor store of around 630 square metres, plus a kiosk.
No names yet — the units would be built as shells for incoming brands to fit out, and McArthurGlen has not said who it is talking to.
The obvious question — where does everyone park? — is answered with a deck: a new raised level built over the overflow car park at the western edge of the site.
The centre currently has 1,048 spaces in the main car park and 358 in the overflow, and the developer says the deck means no spaces would be lost overall once the new shops take their slice of the tarmac.
There’s a green tinge to the scheme too — solar panels on the new roofs, and rain gardens and planting replacing what the application admits is currently mostly hardstanding.
The look of the new anchor store borrows from McArthurGlen’s Cheshire Oaks outlet, where a similar glass-gabled unit houses Cath Kidston — the design comes from Cardiff-based Holder Mathias Architects, though the visuals are indicative rather than final.
The outlet opened in May 1998 and has grown into one of south Wales’ biggest shopping draws, sitting right off the M4 about two and a half miles from Bridgend town centre.
Around 80 brands trade there — Boss, Superdry, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger among them, with Nando’s, Wagamama and Chopstix feeding the crowds — and McArthurGlen describes it as one of the largest employers in Bridgend and the wider region.
Its pull stretches well beyond Bridgend, with the application saying visitors come from a wide catchment and typically return up to four times a year.
The village has seen brands come and go over the years — a Welsh food and drink pop-up brought artisan producers to the centre in 2022. The same year, Joules closed its outlet store when the retailer collapsed into administration.
The plans — reference P/26/369/FUL — have been submitted to Bridgend County Borough Council, which will now decide whether the expansion can go ahead.
If approved, the new units and square would transform the quieter southern end of the village — the corner of the outlet that, in the developer’s own words, currently suffers from “a lack of presence”.
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