Department store ‘likely to house a mix of uses’

THE huge Debenhams department store in Plymouth city centre is likely to be ‘broken up’ into smaller units, providing space for a range of shops, businesses, offices and new flats, a leading property expert from Plymouth says.

Joanne High, the head of Vickery Holman commercial property company based in the city, says the massive New George Street unit could become a “mixed-use” location with small units on the ground floor and flats or a hot-desk office space above.

While the ground floor units could become shops, they also could be filled by medical clinics and nurseries – and even leisure activities like bowling or indoor sports, under new planning laws that allow for a change of a building’s use.

Mrs High says a transformation of the building could bring more life into the city centre. “We could see any number of different uses there from retail, office, cafe/restaurant, clinics, nurseries and leisure uses,” she said. “The upper parts would be ideal for residential to bring more people into the city centre, which it has long been recognised as needing.

“It could also be a good place for a serviced office scheme. I think it will end up being a mixed-use scheme, which would really benefit Plymouth and revitalise the city centre.”

Like Plymouth’s Drake Circus shopping centre and The Barcode, the Debenhams store in the city centre is owned by property development firm British Land, which is expected to make the final decision on what to do with the site next month.

Mrs High added: “Debenhams is uniquely located on the end of the block, meaning there is much more flexibility for splitting the ground floor space into smaller units. If they can make the units small enough so that they are affordable for local tenants, then that would be a great way to get a better mix of locals and nationals into the city centre.”

Senior surveyor at Vickery Holman’s Exeter office, Zach Maiden, added that department stores are “completely obsolete” these days. “Such large buildings have caused a concern about their future use but we believe there is an opportunity to simply reposition them towards other uses,” he said.

“We can see a new co-working trend which is office/residential within the same building and this is likely to stimulate the economy as people live, work and shop in their vicinity, which in turn would also boost leisure and nightlife.”

Retail giant Debenhams, which has more than 100 stores in the UK, formally entered administration in April, 2020. A few months later, the Debenhams brand was sold to online retailer Boohoo. In December, workers at the Plymouth store said they were given the news via an online conference that the company’s administrators had begun the liquidation process and the store would “close in March”.

Earlier this month, Debenhams confirmed it would reopen its stores for one final sale to sell off excess stock. All of its stores, including those in Plymouth, Exeter and Torquay, reopened on Monday, when non-essential shops were permitted to trade. Stores are expected to be open for between three and five weeks.