Altrincham House of Fraser to be redeveloped

The building’s owner has put forward plans to convert the existing 60,000 sq ft store into a mixed-use development featuring offices, apartments, and retail.

Lunar, which owns the long leasehold of the Stamford Quarter, is proposing to reconfigure the building into three retail stores on the ground and lower ground floors, totalling 22,700 sq ft.

The first floor is set to be converted to a 17,200 sq ft office, while there will be 62 one and two-bed flats above. A planning application has now been put forward with Pozzoni as architect.

The House of Fraser store, branded as Rackhams, is currently occupied by a Sports Direct after the latter bought the department store group from its administrators last year.

Existing tenants in neighbouring buildings, including gym Orangetheory Fitness, will be retained as part of the plans.

The area around the House of Fraser is one of the last major parts of Altrincham’s retail core to be redeveloped; the wider Stamford Quarter has been significantly overhauled in the last five years including new retail stores and public realm.

Trafford Council is the freehold owner of the Stamford Quarter; Lunar is also currently the leasehold owner of the nearby Clarendon House, which has planning permission for an office-to-residential conversion. Lunar put this up for sale last year.

Ian Minto, director of Lunar, said: “The remodelling of the department store is the final piece of our regeneration of Stamford Quarter.

“We believe that redeveloping this important area of the centre for a high-quality, mixed-use scheme will strike the right balance in Altrincham which, through continuing investment and strategic direction, has gone from strength to strength in recent years.”

Barker Proudlove and HRH Retail are joint letting agents for Stamford Quarter.