IN Brief:
- Muir Construction has started work on a Wickes store at Heartlands near Whitburn, its third retail building in the development.
- Home Bargains opened in August 2025 and Tesco in July 2026; the third retail unit received planning approval in April 2026.
- P3 Consulting, Smith Design, Ramage Young and DSSR are among returning project partners; no construction value or completion date has been disclosed.
Muir Construction has started building a Wickes home improvement store at Heartlands near Whitburn, West Lothian, its third retail construction project within the regeneration development. The new building will join Home Bargains and Tesco, which opened in earlier phases. Muir confirmed the start on 23 October, with several consultants and subcontractors returning from the contractor’s previous work at the site.
The development occupies land associated with the former Polkemmet Colliery, south of the M8 motorway. Heartlands has been developed through successive residential, retail and commercial projects rather than as a single construction package. West Lothian’s investment information identifies the retail area near Rigghouse Road, serving the expanding housing development and surrounding communities. The Wickes works add a further commercial building to an area where adjoining shops have already been completed and opened.
Home Bargains opened a retail unit of approximately 25,000 sq ft in August 2025, while Tesco opened a neighbouring store of about 30,550 sq ft in July 2026. The local investment record places the planned Wickes unit west of Home Bargains and dates its planning approval to late April 2026. Those dates establish the sequence of retail delivery; the current milestone is the start of construction on the approved third unit.
Muir’s returning team includes P3 Consulting, Smith Design, Ramage Young and DSSR, together with subcontractors involved in previous phases. David Fairweather, the contractor’s business development director, said continued relationships were intended to bring existing project experience into the new build. Individual consultant scopes remain unspecified, while the named businesses continue their involvement after earlier phases of the Heartlands development.
The third retail building is being developed beside occupied premises, creating a different site environment from a vacant greenfield plot. Contractors must manage deliveries, welfare arrangements and work areas without treating neighbouring stores as part of the construction site. Muir has not published a traffic management plan for the Wickes project, but its earlier presence at Heartlands provides experience of the access and boundary conditions around the existing retail development.
The store’s structural frame, foundations, cladding specification, building services design and floor area have not been detailed in the current construction announcement. A new retail unit normally requires a weathertight building, serviced internal spaces and suitable customer and delivery access, but no specific system has been confirmed for Wickes. The start of works should therefore be reported as a construction milestone without attributing particular materials or building methods to the project.
Heartlands also includes an extensive residential programme. The local development profile records plans for approximately 2,000 homes and around 750 completed by January 2026. These figures describe the wider development rather than demand projections for Wickes. The sequence of housing and commercial construction helps explain why additional retail buildings are being delivered, while the store’s eventual trading performance remains outside the scope of the construction update.
Muir has emphasised repeat business and familiar project partners as features of the Heartlands programme. Having worked on adjacent plots can provide useful records of access arrangements, ground investigation and existing services, although any earlier information must be checked against the requirements of the new building. The company has not reported a measured programme saving or contract cost reduction on the Wickes project, and the construction value remains undisclosed.
Retail developments also require clear separation between the base building contract and the eventual tenant fit-out. The shell, building services connections and external works may be delivered in different packages from the store’s internal layout and equipment. Muir has not disclosed the intended package boundaries or named a separate fit-out contractor. Those details will become relevant as the project moves from the main construction phase towards handover to Wickes.
The contractor’s latest appointment extends a sequence in which Heartlands has attracted major retail tenants alongside housing and other employment uses. West Lothian’s investment information lists the earlier Home Bargains and Tesco openings and identifies planning consent for the third non-food retail unit. Muir’s return adds continuity to the delivery team, although the new building will still require its own construction programme, inspections and commissioning.
Work on the Wickes site has now commenced, with the wider retail area continuing to operate around the construction activity. Neither a completion date nor the store’s opening date has been announced. The next confirmed milestones will depend on the progress of the building works and agreement of the final handover arrangements with Wickes.
