If Debenhams goes is it game over for city centre shopping?
COUNCIL'S RETAIL HOPES ARE PINNED ON ALBION SQUARE DEVELOPMENT
Can Hull city centre withstand the loss of its last big traditional department store? While the fate of the Debenhams store has yet to be decided, the prospects don’t look good.
The retail giant says up to 50 stores across the country will close over the next three to five years. That’s 40 more than previously announced.
It’s believed leases at 25 stores are up for renewal over the next five years, allowing Debenhams to hand back the keys.
Whether the Hull store or the smaller branch in Beverley fall into that category remains unknown.
However, the imminent closure of Hull’s House of Fraser store, together with the demise of British Home Stores, offers a sharp contrast to Hull City Council’s recent optimistic launch of an invitation for investors to consider splashing their cash at a number of key development sites in the city centre.
Most of these are earmarked for new residential schemes, adding up to 2,500 new homes.
However, the council is also pinning its hopes on the proposed £130m Albion Square project to inject some major new retail investment into the city centre.
As well as apartments, office space, an ice rink and a multistorey car park, the current planning application for the scheme includes up to eight retail units.
Overall, the plans provide 16,752 square metres of retail floorspace.
To put that into context, current council planning policy says the city centre can take up to 52,000 square metres of new retail floorspace over the next decade.
As such, Albion Square will provide around a third of that.
Last year that policy helped the council secure a hard-fought public inquiry victory over developers in Kingswood who wanted to expand their existing retail park.
New uncertainty over Debenhams will no doubt reignite the debate about the city centre versus places like Kingswood as the retail landscape undergoes yet more change.
Interestingly, the council’s pitch to investors describes the area taking in Albion Square, House of Fraser and Debenhams as Hull’s Royal Quarter.
It’s not a name you will see in any local promotional material or even one that’s familiar to anyone actually working or living there.
Instead, I’m told it’s purely aimed at the external market as the word “royal” tends to attract more attention, particularly among those with deep pockets.
In a city famous for showing the door to King Charles I, I’m not sure it’s one for the long-term.
The word ‘royal’ tends to attract more attention, particularly among those with deep pockets