Glasswells hands over site for building work to begin on massive new Ipswich showroom.
Work is set to begin next month on Glasswells’ massive new 73,000 sq ft, £5 million, furniture showroom on Ipswich’s Orwell Retail Park.
Paul Glasswell, managing director of Glasswells, East Anglia’s largest independent furnishing retailer, has officially handed over to the site to contractors, Barnes Construction.
When completed the two-floor glass fronted showroom which is at the junction of London Road and Ranelagh Road will be similar in size to Glasswells’ store on Newmarket Road in Bury St Edmunds. It will be four times the size of its existing store in Martlesham Heath and create 70 new jobs in the town.
Paul Glasswell promises that the new store will be a beautiful landmark for the town and will offer unrivalled furniture-shopping facilities within the town. There will be substantial and sympathetic landscaping and road access to the site is being improved.
Paul said that the choice of a local contractor was quite deliberate. “We’re a company with deep roots in East Anglia. I’m the third generation of the family and we’ve traditionally always preferred to work with other locally-based businesses. Barnes Construction is a renowned company and we’re looking forward very much to working with them again on this new development,” he said.
Glasswells are currently planning on opening the new store in December 2008.
Chris Bruce, divisional pre-contracts director at Barnes Construction, said, “We are delighted to be continuing the relationship with Glasswells and working on the new Ipswich showroom, following on from the success of the construction of the Bury St Edmunds store.”
Until the middle of March, Glasswells operated its ‘Furniture Now” showroom on the site, and this was closed recently to make way for the building project.
“When the new store opens, it will be very similar to our Bury St Edmunds store, which stocks a wide range of furnishings,” said Paul. “In that respect, it is very different to our Martlesham showroom where, because of space, we can hold only a limited range of stock. “As well as dining and upholstered furniture, we will sell beds, floor coverings, curtains and linens, lighting, giftware and cookware,” he added. “We will also have an in-store designer service and will also offer contract furnishing for businesses.
Like the Bury St Edmunds showroom, the new store will have a restaurant – Place to Eat - which will be open daily for tea and coffee, as well as home-cooked cakes and freshly-prepared meals. There will also be a Playzone for children, equipped with toys and a video lounge.
“This is just one of many development projects going on in and around Ipswich at the moment. Ipswich feels like a very exciting place to be. We’ve had our store in Martlesham since 1995, and we’re now confident about the future in this area, on the basis of that experience.”
Glasswells is a 60 year old family company, set up by Paul Glasswell’s father, Leslie Glasswell, (who is still chairman of the company) and grandfather in Bury St Edmunds. There are further Glasswells’ showrooms in Saffron Walden and Haverhill. The company also has divisions specialising in contract furnishings, furniture removals and storage.
The two other stores on the Orwell Park site will remain unchanged currently as a result of the redevelopment of the Glasswells store.
