PICTURES: A look inside The Broadway shopping centre

Juice, the largest smoothie retailer in Yorkshire, is the latest food and drink outlet to be announced by Australian developer Westfield.

It will cover 438 sq ft, taking its place alongside High Street names including H&M, Next, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer.

Director of Westfield's Leasing Keith Mabbett said demand for space was high with almost three-quarters of the centre already spoken for and more names to be added in the next few weeks.

He said: "We are delighted that Juice will be opening at The Broadway and we believe that their excellent reputation in the region will strengthen the impressive line-up of retailers already signed up to the scheme.

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"This further proves that Bradford is a key retail location, attracting a diverse range of local, national and international brands. With nearly 70 per cent of the centre’s floor space already committed, demand is high. As the scheme continues to gain momentum, we look forward to announcing more new occupiers in the coming weeks."

The Telegraph & Argus toured the city centre site this week, where work is on budget and target, with the opening still planned in time for this year's Christmas shopping period.

The distinctive tiled exterior in turquoise and deep brown is finished, the glass roofing that spans the malls walkways is complete and now all of the focus is on the levels inside.

Marks & Spencer, which will have two tiers, is expected to be the first store to be handed its keys at the end of this month, the others will then follow.

Last month fashion retailer H&M was confirmed as the latest clothes name to sign up for a store in the 570,000sq ft development, which will extend over three levels.

Car parking up a ramp will rise to five levels with more than 1,300 spaces and a panoramic view of the city's roofscapes stretching over to the red stands of Valley Parade and the distant purple moors.

The vast glass entrances to the shopping centre let shoppers in to the marble floored malls. The stone used in the new building blends into the old around it - Kala Sangham's base at St Peter's House, Bradford Cathedral, Little Germany and the Midland Hotel and entry route into the city centre.

Compared to Australian Westfield's Stratford centre with 300 shops, the Bradford development is small scale. It will have about 70 units in all also be home to food halls and pop-up stalls, but plans were scaled back for it to have hotel accommodation.

There are about 400 to 500 workers on-site tasked with a programme of work, reviewed weekly and under an ever watchful health and safety eye - soon labourers will peak to about 1,500.

The 6,600 tonne steel structure has been clad with plasterboard and fire resistant boarding, there are breeze blocks, all the main services have been installed ready to be connected, 75 per cent of the mall's floor has been laid and work will soon start on the ceilings.

In the belly of the shopping development, deep underground, is the basement - the nerve centre where already 20 lorryloads of materials are delivered on average every day, carrying cement, steel and other vital fixings to piece the giant retail jigsaw together.

It here that stores' daily deliveries will be brought through a gaping access from Canal Road which will have to be tightly managed to keep the one-way route running without a hitch or a jam.

The final finishings, and many of the individual shop fronts, will be taken on by the stores themselves making their own mark.

It could take an estimated six weeks alone to remove all the hoardings round the site and lift off the metal footbridge connecting the site with a welfare village for the labourers - a shed city of drying rooms, restrooms, personal protection equipment storerooms and a canteen.

As the development nears its completion date, more efforts are being made to make sure there are plenty of Bradfordians ready to work there. Bradford College has created a number of retail and leisure courses to help people secure some of the 2,500 retail positions expected to be created when The Broadway shopping centre opens. That will be complemented by a Bradford Council-run retail academy, called the Skillshouse, that will open next month as a finishing school for people before they start work in the centre.