Lord Street change with Town Deal Investment
SOUTHPORT town centre is undergoing some substantial changes at the moment – and it is not necessarily new shops which will give it the urgent boost it needs to thrive.
It is however one thing that many people in our town desperately want to see.
More than 7,000 people gave their views on what they wanted to see done to improve life here in the consultation for Southport Town Deal. Scores of people gave similar responses – ‘more shops on Lord Street’, or ‘fewer empty retail units’.
The simple answer, in the short-term, is for everyone in Southport, Merseyside to support the shops that we do have – it is vital that we all ‘shop local’ not just this Christmas, but beyond as well.
This year saw a challenging start for retail, with two major department stores on Lord Street shutting within days of each other in March.
The closure of Beales was followed by the demise of Debenhams, leaving two sizable anchor stores to fill.
A further challenge came from the granting (finally) of planning permission in August to allow the new Sainsburys superstore to open at Meols Cop Retail Park in Blowick.
The 7,596sqm supermarket and petrol station will create 200 new jobs when it opens in 2022, while a planning condition requires the existing Sainsbury’s at Great Georges Place (near Lord Street) to be kept open for the next five years.
Sefton Liberal Democrat Leader, Cllr John Pugh, had been among those who had argued against the plans, saying it would draw trade away from existing town centre businesses.
That same month, the regular Southport Health Check’ carried out by Nexus Planning revealed that Southport had 13.6% of vacant town centre floorspace in 2011, rising to 15% by 2015 and reaching 18.7% by 2020.
This was in comparison to the UK 2020 average of 10.6%. Serious investors however are eyeing
Southport interest.
While Southport and Lord Street in particular has a rich history as a beautiful place to shop, retail is not necessarily where this new investment is going, although it will ultimately benefit.
One scheme which is going ahead will see JSM Company Group convert the four-storey former BHS building into 30 twobed apartments, with five retail units and a pub on the ground floor.
Their company Prestige Stay will run the building as an apart hotel.
Prestige Stay is converting the former BHS building on Chapel Street in Southport.
Just around the corner, growing IT firm Techedia is preparing the former Taskers Sports Christ Church Higher Grade School building into a new home for 70 employees, plus a well-being centre.
Other landmark buildings could soon be brought back into use. Under Southport Town Deal, a business incubator is proposed in one of Southport’s former shopping arcades to provide much needed space for the town’s digital and creative businesses.
A larger Enterprise Store could also be developed in a former department store building to provide scale-up accommodation for growing businesses.
The former BHS store on Chapel Street in Southport Building work is currently taking place at Southport Market in a £1.4million scheme to convert the building from retail into a brand new food, drink and events hub.
Southport BID is working hard to improve the town too.
The BID is helping the council with the Southport Townscape Heritage scheme which is improving historic buildings in the town centre.
The BID is also behind the new lighting along Lord Street as well as bringing flowers and Christmas decorations to the town centre, providing the feelgood factor to attract visitors.
The new Southport Gift
with much
Card will encourage people to support local businesses.
Matthew Townson, of Techedia, has announced his £1m plan to redevelop The Cloisters building in Southport.
Longer-term, we are seeing exciting proposals for a new £70m waterside events centre’ to replace Southport Theatre and Convention Centre; a £40million investment for a brand new Southport Cove’ surf resort at Princes Park; an ambition to transform Southport Pleasureland into an allweather all year round attraction’ and an immersive light and sound show for the Marine Lake.
Victoria Park is emerging as a venue for an exciting new array of events such as Comedy In The Park and the Smoke & Fire Festival North to add to
Southport Flower Show, attracting thousands of new visitors into our town. At the northern end of Lord Street, Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group has led regeneration efforts from retail into the trendy Northern Quarter’ focusing mainly on hotels, bars and restaurants.
Southport is at a critical point. Things are changing, and changing rapidly.
The growth of online shopping and stresses in the retail sector is not purely a Southport issue. Our Debenhams store was one of 22 to close nationwide in March for example.
With change comes opportunity. We want to see Southport town centre thriving, really thriving again. To do that we won’t necessarily see retail replace retail. But we could see these changes benefit the existing shops and other local businesses that we do have.
Filling big empty buildings and making our town centre busy is good news. Bringing new visitors into the apart hotel at the former BHS, new enterprises into Southport Market and new employees into the former Taskers Sports will hopefully bring greater numbers of people to visit local businesses, creating greater spend. We all want to see Lord Street and Southport town centre really thriving again.
With the various plans taking place, through Southport Town Deal, Southport BID and others, hopefully that will happen. It will be a different town that emerges but by being creative and forward thinking it can become a vibrant place to be once again.