No retailer will take on Bolton’s M&S site after it closes in April, the borough’s council leader has claimed. The town centre was dealt a body blow in January when the high street giant announced the closure of the 100,000 square foot store on Deansgate.
At a recent scrutiny meeting of Bolton Council, leader Martyn Cox said the authority, who own the building, had been given just an hour’s notice of the closure plans before they were made public. The council have said the store will close in April this year, but no exact date has been provided.
M&S made the decision to pull out of the town despite having a lease on the building until April, 2027, which compels them to continue to pay rent for the site, even if it is vacant. The council secured the freehold to the building in 2019 to enable the wider redevelopment of Crompton Place shopping centre, a project which has yet to significantly progress in terms of building work.
Fears were expressed at the meeting that if left empty for a prolonged period the site could become ‘a horrendous eyesore smack, bang in the centre of town’.
Council leader Martyn Cox told councillors: “Nobody is going to take on 100,000 sq ft of retailing in these conditions.
“It is incumbent on us as owners to try and find a new use for that building, sooner rather than later. We are having preliminary discussions with developers about future uses for the building but we can’t at this stage talk in any detail about it.”
Coun Cox stressed that until a new use for the building is agreed between all parties M&S remained ‘on the hook for the rent until April 2027’.
Opposition leader Nick Peel, said: “What concerns me is the store is due to close in April. The council need to use whatever relationship we have with the owners of Marks and Spencer to ensure that it doesn’t become a dilapidated, boarded up building right in the centre of the shopping area.
“They need to work with us to make sure that at least something is going on in those ground floor windows otherwise it’s going to become a horrendous eyesore smack, bang in the centre of the town.”
When announcing the closure M&S blamed changing ‘shopping habits’ for the decision to shut the Bolton store.
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