Westfield Derby

**Westfield Derby**, originally **The Eagle Centre** then **Intu Derby**, is a large indoor shopping center in the center of Derby, owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and formerly owned by Intu Properties.

## Overview

Intu Derby may contain up to 200 shops, a supermarket, a cinema and many eateries. Anchor tenants include Next, Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and Sainsbury's. There is also a cinema, named the Showcase Cinema de Lux, in the center. It has three car parks and is a few minutes walk away from both Derby's bus and railway stations.

The UK's largest, but mainly unoccupied, indoor market, the Eagle Market, adjoins the center. The market and Derby Theatre, which is accessed through the market, were considered to be part of the center until 2007, when the centre was known as The Eagle Centre. When the center was expanded and renamed (see below), the market, owned by the Westfield Group and Hermès, but operated by Derby City Council, did not take on the Westfield name; it slightly changed its name from the Eagle Centre Market to simply the Eagle Market and introduced its own branding, separate from both the former Eagle Centre's and Westfield's), making itself distinct from the shopping centre for the first time.

A much smaller indoor shopping precinct, St Peter's Way, is also physically connected to Intu Derby. Customers can walk seamlessly between the two.

## History

The center opened as The Eagle Centre on 20 November 1975, at a cost of £7 million. Several streets of terraced housing built in the early 1820s were demolished to make way for the new center, including a street called Eagle Street, which gave the name of the new development.<

The center's market was rebuilt in 1990, and the entire center was refurbished in 1999. A £340m extension to the Eagle Centre was opened on 9 October 2007 by TV celebrity Tess Daly. The extension sits on the site of the former Castlefields Main Centre, a dilapidated outdoor shopping center already owned by the Westfield Group.

The extension doubled the size of the center from 51,559 m2 (554,980 sq ft) to 106,130 m2 (1,142,400 sq ft). As well as adding many new retailers, the extension also houses an 800-seat food court including a KFC outlet, a £30m twelve-screen Cinema de Lux and even more car parking facilities.

Many retailers, including Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and the now defunct Republic, closed their existing Derby stores to move to bigger stores in the extension. When the extension opened, the Eagle Centre was renamed Westfield Derby, in line with other Westfield shopping centers.

On 3 December 2010 a fire, which started in the car park, caused thousands of shoppers to be evacuated from the building.

In March 2014, it was announced that Intu Properties was to acquire Westfield Derby. On 1 May 2014, it was rebranded as Intu Derby.

In April 2019, Intu sold 50% of the center to Cale Street Investments, an investment firm backed by the Kuwait Investment Office. On 9 September 2020, following Intu's administration, Cale Street purchased the remainder of Intu Derby. The center will be renamed soon and is currently referred to as the **Derby Centre** until a final name is decided.