Paisley Centre owners ‘forcing businesses out with harsh conditions’
The owners of the Paisley Centre have been accused of overseeing the demise of occupying businesses long before its planned regeneration gets off the ground.
Beyond Retail Property Fund Ltd (BRPF) secured outline planning permission to repurpose the town centre building into flats, commercial premises and a hotel last year.
But John McDermott, who owned the now-shut Cafe Su, says BRPF are effectively forcing the closure of businesses before the scheme – which will take years to design, fund and build – gets underway.
Their decision to turn off the heating in the depth of winter, cut off the wifi and centre music and failure to fix toilets that have been left “out of order” for months meant it was impossible for his cafe to survive, he said.
Explaining a warm and welcoming atmosphere is a prerequisite to a operating a successful cafe, John said: “As part of cost cutting they have switched off the music, the wifi and they have not put the heating on all winter.
“During the cold snap, my thermometer showed it was 4C and that severely impacted trade.
“The toilets; they were an asset to the cafe and the shopping centre as a whole but they closed them in January for repairs and they never reopened.
“Despite the cost-of-living crisis, we were coping well. We had a lot of regular customers but, at the end of the day, no one is going to go to a cafe that is cold and has no functioning toilets.
“No music, no wifi, no heat, no toilets means no cafe.”
Cafe Su opened on the same day of the Paisley Centre itself almost 30 years ago.
It was opened in the local market area by John’s sister Susan before he and his mother took it on a few years later.
Its closure has forced the redundancies of six members of staff, some of whom had worked at the cafe for over 20 years.
While John accepts BRPF has a masterplan to repurpose the Paisley Centre, he feels the company is failing to manage the transition for businesses who still want to operate from the centre.
“The outline planning permission suggests this will be done in four phases,” he added, “with the refurbishment of M&S to be phase one and the flats in the upper levels of the centre stage 4.
“The idea was that businesses would remain trading throughout these first phases but with these harsh conditions within the centre, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that that will happen.”
Richard Ford of Reith Lambert, said: “We are acutely aware of the numerous challenges facing our tenants in Paisley, not least due to the current economic climate, and we continue to work closely with them to assist where we can in their continuing trade.
“This has included supporting the highly successful Art Department/Pace Theatre now operating from the vacant former COOP department store.
“Our clients continue to engage with Renfrewshire Council, the local community and stakeholders with the intent of securing the earliest possible delivery of their exciting Masterplan, which includes new residential accommodation, supporting retail, an international hotel brand, new public realm, together with the potential for a new state of the art health and community hub.
“Meanwhile, against the current challenging backdrop, we will continue to keep the centre trading for as long as economically possible.”
They have switched off the music, the wifi and have not put the heating on all winter