Council gets £1m boost in Debenhams conversion plan
Transforming Towns grant funding from the Welsh Government will allow Cyngor Gwynedd to fund a lease option as it looks to repurpose the building into a £20m health hub.
At 57,000 sq ft, the former Debenhams, closed since 2021, is the largest retail property in Bangor’s retail pitch.
The Welsh Government has now signed off £992,000 that will enable the council to take on a lease option and associated costs until March 2027.
- READ MORE: Place North West’s special report on the re-use of Debenhams stores
This will allow plans to be fully worked up for the proposed health & wellbeing hub while other funding sources are explored, as Cyngor Gwynedd looks to bring a highly prominent building back into use as a key element in the Bangor Placemaking Plan.
Plans for the conversion of the former Debenhams space at the Menai Centre date back to summer 2023, when it was reported that stakeholders including the Betsi Cadwaladr health board and Bangor University had put their heads together to look at the site.
The Menai Centre as a whole clocks in at just under 140,000 sq ft. It was most recently traded in spring 2023, when Bearmont Capital bought the centre, at that stage 80% vacant, from Columbia Threadneedle for an undisclosed sum.
Cathco Property Group had developed the centre in 2007 for £32m.
Movement on the former Debenhams store fits in with an increase in activity across the collapsed retail empire over the last year, after the immediate post-Covid period saw most landlords struggle to find takers for the units.
As reported last month by Place North West, virtually all of the region’s 22 ex-Debenhams stores have been reopened, at least in part, or are in the process of redevelopment, such as the mammoth store in Manchester city centre.
In North Wales specifically, the 42,000 sq ft former Wrexham store is being split horizontally across its two floors, with an AirHop Adventure & Trampoline Park opening in one. In Llandudno, Marks & Spencer took the opportunity to relocate from its Mostyn Street base to Debenhams’ more modern unit at Parc Llandudno.
Transforming Towns is a £100m Welsh Government programme worth £100m across four years. Of this, £22m is allocated for North Wales projects, with the region’s six local authorities eligible to apply for support for projects under various streams, such as placemaking or tackling empty properties causing a blight.
