Exciting future in store for Debenhams building
DEBENHAMS has become the latest casualty of the high street as the department store chain collapsed.
Administrators are still scrambling to find a buyer for the 242-year-old business, without which all 124 of its UK branches will face closure.
But it seems the writing is already on the wall for its Manchester city centre store – or at least in the windows, which are plastered with red signs advertising a closing down sale at ‘this store only’.
Major redevelopment plans had already been revealed for the Market Street building earlier this year, by its owners AM Alpha.
The German investment company’s proposals, submitted to the council in September, would see the Rylands Building carved up into a new shopping arcade at street level.
It would mark a return to the Art Deco landmark’s original 1930s configuration on the ground floor, which was originally home to a number of smaller retail units.
Below, the basement would be converted into shopping, dining and leisure facilities, accessed via a new escalator entrance on Tib Street.
But the bulk of the grade II-listed building would be turned into offices, with a new four storey rooftop extension creating extra commercial space.
Owners say the development will ‘bring life back to long underused parts of the building’ and support Manchester’s post-Covid economic bounce back.
AM Alpha managing director Martin Lemke told the M.E.N. in August: “Since we bought the building we had the vision to transform this iconic landmark into a vibrant, fully occupied building with a long-term future.
“Now, we have set out our vision in the proposed plans. Once plans are approved, we can deliver a unique office environment at a pivotal gateway location between Manchester’s central core, Northern Quarter and Piccadilly which will attract larger independent office occupiers to Manchester’s city centre, promote job creation and support post-Covid economic bounce back.”
AM Alpha bought the building for £87m in 2017. It is let to Debenhams until 2039.
The department store is currently spread over three levels of the building, from the basement to the third floor.
But in the current climate there is ‘little market appetite for significant areas of retail floor space, particularly for the department store sector’, according to the proposals.
“The market sector for retail, even prior to Covid-19, is fundamentally changing which further reduces demand for large areas of retail floor space,” they state.
“These changes include more people shopping online, as well as supply chain improvement, meaning a decline in sales and declining need for expensive retail floor space.
“It is therefore expected that in the future there will not be a demand for significant areas of retail floor space.”
Owners also considered converting the building into apartments or a hotel, but concluded both ‘would result in harm to the listed building’.
They say the office extension is necessary ‘to make the proposals viable and financially support the required repairs and restoration of the building’.
Architect Jeffrey Bell said: “The design approach for The Rylands Building seeks to balance a high degree of restoration of the building to its original appearance and to acknowledge and clearly reveal relevant changes that have affected the building during its life. The overall aim is to establish a genuine sense of place with the site’s valuable heritage asset at its heart.”
The plans have yet to go before Manchester council’s planning committee.