City centre property is in demand
PLYMOUTH city centre is set to benefit from new restaurants, flats and leisure businesses as property developers swoop to buy up huge blocks in Cornwall Street and Armada Way.
Businesses are keen to move into empty units near Drake Circus shopping centre and an offer, thought to be in the region of £4.9 million, has been made on the enormous block which extends from B&M round to the Original Pasty House, it can be revealed.
It comes just months after another deal was struck to buy the buildings on the opposite side of Cornwall Street, from the vacant former Sharps bedroom store all the way round to the empty former Samsung support centre in Armada Way. A restaurant is now expected to open in the former Sharps unit, and it is likely the floors above the entire row will become flats. It is also expected that the upper floors above B&M would be turned into residential or leisure use, once the deal is done.
Joanne High, head of commercial agency for property consultancy Vickery Holman, said the upper Cornwall Street area was being highly prized by developers and investors. She said there is an “agreed letting for a restaurant” in the former Sharps unit, which was part of a block sold in February.
She said there are only two other empty units in that block and the new owner will be looking at uses for the upper floors. She said: “It will probably be residential over Cornwall Street, on the Specsavers side.”
The PDSA veterinary charity has taken a lease on the former Lawson’s homeware store unit opposite, and Mrs High said that building will go on the market soon. She said: “We will be selling that investment as well, with the PDSA as tenants.”
Further down Cornwall Street, the block which includes B&M and Barclays, and extends around Armada Way to include the German Doner Kebab and Crispy’s restaurants, both owned by Z&K Cornwall Desserts Ltd, accessory retailer Claire’s and the Original Pasty House, is on the market for £4.9m.
As is common with Plymouth’s entire central shopping area, the property is held on a long leasehold from Plymouth City Council as two long leases, each of 250 years and only created in 2007 and 2008. Both leases allow the property to be redeveloped for residential use and Mrs High said: “It is under offer. The people buying it are planning to do residential or leisure in the upper parts.”
The two floors above Barclays are in use, but those above B&M and the restaurants could be transformed. A document from property agents Fawcett Mead, which describes the block as a “high-yielding prominent retail investment with development potential’’, said: “This accommodation could be converted into alternative uses such as residential, purpose-built student accommodation or leisure. Furthermore, in our opinion, the flat roofs offer an excellent opportunity to extend the building, subject to obtaining the necessary consents.”
The 1950s block formerly contained Plymouth’s BHS store, but much of it was left empty when the retailer went into liquidation, closing all 163 branches nationally with the loss of 11,000 jobs, in 2017.
St James’s Place Property Unit Trust, which represents the building’s leaseholder, gained permission to transform the property by subdividing it and changing use so restaurants could move in. It then rented the ground-floor spaces to B&M and Z&K Cornwall Desserts Ltd.
The sale of the Armada Way/Cornwall Street block comes as nearby Drake House, which houses the Grosvenor casino and Walkabout bar, sold for £4.65m.
The block went on the market in 2021 and asset management firm Addington Capital has said an unnamed private investor had purchased it for the asking price.