The redevelopment of the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet in Ashford is now well under way.

The £90 million project is set to add a further 50 units to the store - with the new flagship store in the extension being the only unit in the centre to be two stories high - as well as a new car park with an additional 725 parking spaces, 500 new jobs and improvements to the area around the shopping centre to connect it with the town centre.

Already work has begun on the former food court, which closed for good earlier this year, and soon the tented structure around that end will be coming down for good in order to make way for the 100 sq ft extension, which will nearly double the size of the Outlet.

Peter Corr, the Ashford Designer Outlet centre manager, said: "It's part of a bigger project within Ashford, and part of the Big 8, to deliver something new and co-exist with the town centre.

"The work started in January and so far, so good. We're on schedule for completion in September 2019 and the new southern car park will hopefully be completed by the end of this year.

"In terms of Ashford and what we're doing, we're building 50 new units - an extra football pitch and a half - in the middle of the centre, down towards Ashford International train station where we're going to be doing a lot of work in improving the pedestrian walkways from here into the town centre.

"It's going to be a continuous build, and whilst we're doing all this, all the shops are still trading as normal. So it's two jobs - a development and an existing operation of a shopping centre."

Artists impressions of hoe the new extension will look

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He added: "The next part of the project will be to take the tent down from the main food court so that will allow us to come into the main section and work around our existing brands.

"It's a case of making sure everything keeps to the timeline, the brands are operational and that we are continuing to entice our customers to come to visit on a regular basis.

"We brought in a lot of new brands last year to the centre so those are all still here to come see and we encourage people to come and see the development as it happens, people will be able to see it evolve over the next year and a half."

The extension is set to be completed by September next year, although parts will be open sooner, such as the new stand-alone McDonald's which is set to open by late spring 2019.

The Ashford Designer Outlet opened in 2000 and is believed to be the 'world's largest tented retail structure'. It was designed by the architect Sir Richard Rogers who is famed for his work on the Lloyd's building in London and the O2 Arena in Greenwich.

In 2014, the centre announced its plans to expand - the first extension since it opened - which was approved by Ashford Borough Council the following year.

It currently welcomes 3.6 million visitors a year, however with the expansion this is hoped to increase to 5 million annually.

The new development will also feature Europe's largest living wall feature.

Mr Corr continued: "We've been here for 20 years now so it would be boring if we didn't challenge ourselves and try and improve.

"We'll be linking the living wall with the tent structure. The idea came from our chairman, who tries to make each centre different, and it works really well with the concept of the 'Garden of England' as well as keeping in with the tent structure."

Peter Corr, centre manager of the Ashford Designer Outlet: