Liverpool City Council has approved plans for the £105m redevelopment of the former Lewis's department store. Proposals for mixed-use project at the 420,000sq ft (39,000sq m) Grade II-listed building were passed by the city's planning committee in August. The owners of the site, developer Merepark and property company Capital & Counties, are behind the plans for the redevelopment of the nine-storey building, which will include a music venue, food and

Stirling Council has approved plans for the next phase of the city's £110m Forthside regeneration project. A new city square, a hotel development and a restaurant are part of proposals to redevelop the 40-acre site on the banks of the Forth river. The first phase of the project saw the opening of a new £2.5m, eight-screen, 1,100-seat Vue cinema and two restaurants in January, as well as the construction of

North Somerset Council (NSC) has approved plans for the £48m redevelopment of the Tropicana centre in Weston-super-Mare. The council's West Area planning committee gave the Lifestation@Tropicana project the go ahead after delaying the decision for two months. Plans for the complex include a six-lane, 25m indoor swimming pool, a multiplex cinema, a 20-lane bowling alley and a 96-bedroom hotel. Retail units and a restaurant are also among the proposals which

Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club (BHAFC) announced that Buckingham Group has appointed to build its new stadium at Falmer, Sussex. It was also revealed, however, that the opening of the 22,500-seat stadium has been put back to August 2011 due to planning delays. Buckingham, which has been involved in work at Reading's Madejski Stadium and Old Trafford in Manchester, has been selected to build the new stadium, and it

Plans have been unveiled for the first phase of development at the home of Sheffield United Football Club (SUFC). It is part of a long-term vision for the Bramall Lane stadium, which could ultimately see the club hosting games in the 2018 World Cup, should a Football Association bid to host the event succeed. The club plans to submit a planning application by the end of October to increase the

The new Lammas Leisure Centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, is set to officially open on 1 November. Operated by Sports and Leisure Management (SLM) under its Everyone Active brand, the centre is being provided as part of a partnership with Ashfield District Council, which will run until 2016. The council has invested £16m in the Lammas Leisure Centre, which includes an ice-skating rink, a six-lane 25m swimming pool, a four-court sports

Tampopo, the Manchester-based noodle bar, has opened its sixth restaurant in Bristol as part of the brand's £2.2m expansion. The 104-seat restaurant is located at the new £500m Cabot Circus retail and leisure development in Broadmead. It follows the opening of two Tampopo sites in Manchester in December 2007 – at the Trafford Centre and the Triangle Shopping Centre. The company has also refurbished its first restaurant, which opened at

Designs for the redevelopment of the 104-year old Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, have been unveiled. Six architecture firms have put forward their ideas for the future of the Grade-II listed structure, just eight weeks after the attraction was destroyed by a large fire. The designs have been drawn up by four Bristol-based architects – Stride Treglown, Acanthus Ferguson Mann, Angus Meek and AWW, as well as Ray Hole and

Delancey and Land Securities have submitted plans to redevelop Clapham Junction station as part of mixed-use scheme to the London Borough of Wandsworth. The project is being headed by the firms' partnership The Metro Shopping Fund, and if successful will provide the station with two new entrances capable of accommodating the 1.6 million increase in users expected by 2026. There could also be a two-level pedestrian shopping street with space

Construction work has begun on the £8.2m leisure centre and library in Maghull, Merseyside as part of an improvement scheme developed by Sefton Council and Maghull Town Council. Maghull Leisure Centre and Library, designed by GLR architects, will feature a five lane, 25m swimming pool and a learner pool as well as a fitness suite, a sauna, a steamroom and an aerobics studio. There will also be a fitness referral

The new US$500m (£271.6m) California Academy of Sciences has opened in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Designed by architect Renzo Piano, the main feature of the new academy building is the 2.5-acre (1.01-hectare) 'living roof', featuring 1.7 million native Californian plants and wildflowers. Built as a single 412,000sq ft (38.276sq m) structure, the site contains the Steinhart Aquarium, the Morrison Planetarium, the Kimball Natural History Museum, and a four-storey rainforest

The £210m mixed-use development of Church Wharf, led by regeneration companies Ask Developments and Bluemantel, has been granted outline planning permission by Bolton Council. The masterplan, designed by careyjones architects, features a 'leisure zone' consisting of a six-screen cinema, up to 10 restaurants, bars and cafés, an 160-bedroom hotel and a series of new pedestrian routes and public spaces. There will also be a business quarter with 340,000sq ft (31.5sq

Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC) has unveiled plans for the £200m redevelopment of Old Trafford cricket club in Manchester as part of a larger 50-acre sports-led regeneration scheme. The project, led by a joint partnership between the club, Trafford Council, Ask Developments, Tesco and Stretford High School, will include a 750,000 sq ft (69.6 sq m) development featuring a new 15,000-seat stadium with the capability of rising to 25,000 with

Glasgow's new £74m Riverside Museum is starting to take shape with the construction of the building's steel framework now underway. The site, which will be the new home of Glasgow's Museum of Transport, is at the centre of a wider £800m regeneration project for the city's harbour. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, work on the Riverside Museum is being carried out by the main contractor, HBG. The project is being

Croydon council has given the go-ahead for a £5m extension and refurbishment of Selsdon Park Hotel & Golf Club in South Croydon, London. The 200-bed hotel, situated in 205-acres of parkland, is soon to acquire a new 88-bed, single-storey development and the existing leisure facilities will be converted into meeting and conference rooms. A new leisure club will also be created to replace the old facilities and will feature an

One of America's most famous sporting arenas, the Yankee Stadium in New York, has hosted its last ever baseball game. The New York Yankees team, which has played its home games at the stadium since 1923, will be relocating to a new $1.3bn (£717.7m) Yankee Stadium in time for the start of the 2009 season. Work on the new 52,325-capacity stadium started in 2006, just north of the current 56,886-capacity

Construction work has begun on a £12m dual-use sports and social centre – the flagship project of the University of Sunderland's £75m redevelopment of its former city centre Chester Road Campus. Called CitySpace, the centre is designed by architects FaulknerBrowns, and will be a pre-paralympic training site for the 2012 London Games. It will be the official training base for Paralympic sailing, boccia, table tennis, goalball and wheelchair basketball, fencing

The Renaissance Hotel, formerly operated by Marriott, in Reading is to undergo a multi-million pound refurbishment as part of its re-branding as the first UK pentahotel. The Germany-based brand has been created by the property's owner HPI Holdings, which decided to rebrand the hotel when Marriott's management contract expired. As part of the refurbishment, which will take place in the next couple of months, the six-floor hotel will acquire 12

The Skelwith Group plans to make a bid to host the Ryder Cup golf tournament in Yorkshire for the first time since 1957. The developer, which has the backing of Yorkshire Forward and The Yorkshire Tourist Board, plans to submit an official bid to the British and European PGA once its £100m Flaxby Country Club hotel is completed in early 2011. The company hopes to host the Europe v US

The proposed relocation of The Royal Highland Showground in Scotland has been delayed after Edinburgh Airport revised its development plans. The showground, which is also the headquarters of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS), was due to move to a new 145-hectare (358.3-acre) site at Norton Park, near Edinburgh, in 2013. Edinburgh Airport, however, said that it would now cost £350m to relocate the showground, and the

A vision of how Birmingham's New Street Station will look following a £600m redevelopment project has been unveiled. The plans are part of the Birmingham Gateway scheme, which is designed to update the 1960s-built station, as well as stimulating further regeneration in the area. Plans include enlarging the concourse by three-and-a-half times its current size, a distinctive station facade, and better pedestrian links, both to and through the station. The

Restoration work has begun on the derelict Marshall Street Baths in Soho, London, as part of a £25m leisure centre development. The site, which first opened in 1852 and was closed nine years ago, is expected to reopen in 2010. When complete, the facility will include a restored main pool, a new gym and health suite with sauna and multi-purpose exercise studios. Part of the plans involve the second 70sq

The new £5.8m dual-use pool and fitness suite at Weald Recreation Centre in Billingshurst, West Sussex, is set to open 20 September. The project is part of a strategy to increase the number of swimming pools in Horsham to three. The Billingshurst pool will join Horsham's Pavilions in the Park swimming and leisure complex and Steyning Leisure Centre. To accommodate the new pool, Weald Recreation Centre – owned by Horsham

A large leisure, retail and entertainment complex is set to open in Kuwait City, Kuwait, early next year. The Kuwait 360° Mall is owned and operated by the retail group Tamdeen and will include a 15-screen multiplex cinema, an Imax theatre, three entertainment zones totaling 12,000sq m and 60,000sq m of branded retail space. At the heart of the development, which was designed by US-based architects RTKL, will be a

The £1.7m refurbishment of Saddleworth swimming baths in Oldham, Lancashire, is now underway. Saddleworth Pool, managed by Oldham Community Leisure, is due to receive a new 50-station fitness suite, dance studio and two five-a-side football pitches to join its existing flood-lit sports pitch. Cheshire-based design company Pozzoni has been appointed as the project's architects and plans to deliver a new entrance and reception area as well as reconfigured wet and

Plymouth City Council has appointed design and planning group Arup to create the £44m Life Centre, a new sports and leisure complex in the city's Central Park. Arup, which created the the $100m ($79m) Water Cube aquatics centre for the Beijing Olympics,was appointed along with the project's lead designers SMC Charter Architects, part of SMC Group. They will work with property consultants EC Harris and the council to manage the

Whitbread, the hotel and restaurant operator, will open its first 'green' Premier Inn at Tamworth, Staffordshire, in December. Work on the new site is already underway, and is set to implement a variety of environmental measures designed to reduce energy consumption by as much as 80 per cent. The new hotel will include ground-source heat pumps, which will use the earth's natural energy to cool and heat the hotel, as