Haskins Garden Centre in Snowhill unveils plans for redevelopment
The popular garden centre based in Crawley has announced plans for redevelopment, with a revamped centre due to open in spring 2020.
- Up to 70 new jobs created
- New centre will be 11,800 sqm on an 8 acre site
- Expansion of centre footprint by 20 per cent
- £15m investment
Haskins acquired the Snowhill site in 2003 and has worked hard to maintain its position as one of the best garden centres in the area. Due to a number of ageing buildings on site, pre-dating Haskins’ ownership, the leading garden centre group recognised the need to redevelop and modernise the centre.
Julian Winfield, chief executive of Haskins Garden Centres, commented: “We have worked closely with the local authority and our neighbours over a number of years to achieve the permission to develop the site.
“We are absolutely delighted to be on track with the £15m redevelopment programme. Whilst it is a long-term investment, we’re confident that it will secure the garden centre for our customers for many years and be a good investment for our business.”
Once the redevelopment is complete, customers will benefit from a consolidated garden centre, with all goods and services located in one contemporary high quality building. The enhanced customer restaurant will seat 440 and offer an outdoor terrace. The restaurant will be able to provide customers with a better range of meals, snacks and drinks.
Additional improvements include a new large covered outdoor sales area, as well as a revamped car park with 346 parking spaces.
Haskins in Snowhill will continue trading as normal until Thursday February 28 2019 and then a temporary centre will open on site on Friday March 1 2019. The main centre will re-open for business in spring 2020.
The developers are currently in the first phase, creating the new car park and entrance and establishing a temporary centre to continue trading.
Julian added: “Once the Snowhill redevelopment is finished, we will have four purpose-built garden centres which puts Haskins in a unique position. Most leading garden centre groups have centres of varying shapes and sizes, but having four similar sites helps us alleviate the complexities of management.”