Bristol's £500 million Cabot Circus development has secured a raft of new lettings a month ahead of its long-awaited opening.

The 1.5 million sq ft (140,000 sq m) scheme, developed by Hammerson and Land Securities, has signed eight more fashion retailers, six of which are new to Bristol.

The biggest deal is with Crew Clothing, which has secured a 4,860 sq ft (450 sq m) unit in Quakers Friars, the designer and luxury area of the scheme, which is to be anchored by Harvey Nichols.

The other new signings are Principles, Gerry Weber, Oasis, La Senza, TM Lewin, Guess Jeans and Guess Accessories. In total, they account for just under 23,000 sq ft (2,140 sq m) of space. Six of the new fashion retailers are new to central Bristol. The developers also announced three further catering lettings in the past week.

The scheme opens on 25 September, and the developers said that despite the downturn in the market, more than 100 retailers will be trading from opening day. "The retail sector has really bought into the potential of Bristol's prosperous catchment," said the scheme's leasing director Keith Stone.

House of Fraser is the other anchor for the scheme, and other major tenants include Next, Topshop and River Island.

Although the retail property market is tough, major schemes such as Broadmead seem to be letting reasonably well because retailers feel they need to be in major centres such as Bristol – the UK's eighth-largest city, with a retail catchment of 3.6 million.

Letting agents are DTZ and Lunson Mitchenall.