RETAIL, LEISURE & LOGISTICS RETAIL, LEISURE & LOGISTICS Rethinking STORE TRANSFORMATIONS STORE over-spaced flagships As some of the biggest names in retail disappear from our towns and cities, they are leaving behind the conundrum of how to fill swathes of empty space. Pui-Guan Man looks at some of the new uses to which former shops and department stores are being put around the country andemic-hit retail giants Proposed The former Debenhams cinema at Debenhams and Arcadia department store on Princesshay dealt a 16.6m sq ft blow to Briggate in Leeds in Exeter high streets, shopping centres Pand out-of-town locations when they collapsed, while 16 John Lewis store closures in the past year have left CAREY JONES CHAPMAN TOLCHER CHAPMAN JONES CAREY landlords of more than 1.4m sq ft in the lurch. Where John Lewis is concerned, half of Tamworth’s John Lewis At Home store will be replaced by discount grocer Aldi, CHAPMAN TAYLOR while the next steps for the Sheffield and Birmingham Grand Central flagships are Debenhams store at Kings Square has Management, its owner, has drawn up still being hotly debated. been given the green light for conversion proposals to repurpose the bottom three Finding ways to fill such sizeable into a five-storey student campus. The floors for flexible commercial uses and pockets of empty space will require University of Gloucestershire, which add the student accommodation to the major reinvention from landlords and bought the property last month, is upper levels. A courtyard space would sit developers. But where the brush is considering which of its higher in the centre. cleared away, new shoots can grow – education courses could be based at and some transformations are already the location – nursing and allied health …cinema starting to take root. Here, EG picks out are among the options. The first phase The Crown Estate’s joint venture with a selection of new uses that have been of the project could open as early as Nuveen in Exeter has lodged plans lined up for spaces once occupied by September 2023. to convert the top floor of the four- former retail heavyweights. Pre-application plans have also been storey, 130,000 sq ft Debenhams in submitted to turn the 112,000 sq ft the Princesshay shopping quarter into FROM DEBENHAMS TO… Briggate department store in Leeds into a four-screen boutique cinema. The …student digs 124 student flats and dual-occupancy redevelopment would also include a In Gloucester, the 215,300 sq ft studios. Orchard Street Investment seating area and bar, with tenants sought 40 EG 24 April 2021 egi.co.uk EGA_240421_040-041 RLL retail transformations.indd 40 16/04/2021 11:04 RETAIL, LEISURE & LOGISTICS RETAIL, LEISURE & LOGISTICS Rethinking over-spaced TRANSFORMATIONS STORE Proposed redevelopment of Manchester’s landmark Kendals department store flagships ROBSON ARCHITECTS AND SHEPPARD INVESTEC music and dance performances as well of offices and 54,000 sq ft of retail and as indoor sports events. It comes after leisure, across 14 storeys. If plans proceed, the council approved plans for a bowling works are expected to be completed by alley, mini-golf, a food hall and shops at 2025. the location last year. …hotel …flats After buying Exeter’s empty 70,000 Plans to transform the iconic Beatties sq ft House of Fraser store last year, store in Wolverhampton into a 306-flat Prydis secured planning consent for a scheme have been given the go-ahead. 104-bedroom hotel as part of a franchise Investor SSYS Beatties, which acquired the agreement with InterContinental Hotels building last year, will also retain around Group. The hotel, which will operate 73,000 sq ft of retail space as well as some under the Hotel Indigo brand, will include 17,000 sq ft of offices. House of Fraser has a spa and speakeasy-style bar. relocated in part to a former Debenhams AMER GHAZZAL/SHUTTERSTOCK at the Mander Shopping Centre, where FROM TOPSHOP TO… it occupies 34,000 sq ft under the Frasers …supermarket for the lower levels. Montagu Evans, brand. This sits within a 60,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s has submitted proposals acting on behalf of the landlords, said multi-brand flagship housing the rest of to Harrogate Borough Council for a a cinema provided “an opportunity to Frasers’ brands, including Sports Direct Sainsbury’s Local store at a vacant improve the vitality and viability of the and Flannels. Topshop/Topman and Miss Selfridge city centre” by “introducing a quality, hybrid store in the town centre. The complementary use during the day and …offices location, at 33-37 Cambridge Street, into the evening”. Investec has filed an application to has been empty for more than three redevelop Manchester’s landmark years. The supermarket giant is seeking FROM HOUSE OF FRASER TO… Kendals department store and the to divide the space into three shops, …mini-golf adjoining Fraser Building into some with two smaller units let to other An indoor mini-golf course is set to 565,000 sq ft of new offices. The Kendals retailers. “The proposals will enable the replace Hammerson and ADIA’s 130,000 store would offer around 249,000 sq ft of reoccupation of the vacant unit, at a time sq ft House of Fraser store at The Oracle office space, with about 100,000 sq ft of when investment in city centres should in Reading, with operator Puttshack the lower levels retained for retail. At the be encouraged,” said consultants at WSP lodging a licensing application for selling same time, it seeks to demolish the Fraser on behalf of Sainsbury’s. alcohol, showing films and hosting live Building to provide circa 316,000 sq ft …vaccination centre The former Topshop store at Dunmail Plans for Reading’s Park Shopping Centre in Workington, former House of Fraser run by J Dixon & Son, has become a store include mini-golf Pharmacy2U Covid-19 vaccination centre. Gordon Osbaldestin, company surveyor at J Dixon, told local newspapers that the company has agreed to lease the space to the pharmacy operator for a year. The clinic is staffed by former Arcadia Exeter’s House employees. of Fraser is being turned into a hotel @PuiGuanM [email protected] URBAN EDGE ARCHITECTURE EDGE URBAN EXPEDITE egi.co.uk EG 24 April 2021 41 EGA_240421_040-041 RLL retail transformations.indd 41 16/04/2021 11:05.