Debenhams has pulled out of plans to build a new store in the Midlands.
The troubled department store chain had planned to spend millions on a new anchor store at a big extension to the Fosse Park shopping centre, close to juncton 21 of the M1, just south of Leicester.
It had been in talks with Fosse Park’s owners to try and salvage the plans after going into administration last April.
It has now decided to cancel them.
This spring the business, which has fallen victim to changing shopping habits and online competition, announced plans to close 50 stores, identifying 22.
It comes after new figures suggested the 海角视频's biggest shopping centre owners took a hit worth £2.7 billion in the last year as high street chains struggle.
Major retail landlords were forced to make £2.7 billion in write-downs on the value of their properties, compared with just £232 million the year before, according to Growthdeck Property's investment arm.
Chains such as Arcadia and New Look have also started slimming down their store estates and asked for rent reductions in order to continue trading.
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Several of the biggest property owners in the 海角视频 have found the value of their prized assets dwindling, as even household name shops become less reliable sources of income.
Debenhams had planned to be the anchor tenant of a £135 million extension to Fosse Park, alongside Clarks, TK Maxx and Next.
Construction work on the former Everards brewery site next door is now in its fourth month.
Fosse Park co-owners The Crown Estate said Nando’s, Greggs, KFC and EE had all confirmed they are taking units at a revamped food court.
The wider redevelopment is now said to be more than 45 per cent pre-let with letting conversations ongoing. It will open next year.
A Fosse Park spokeswoman said: “Further announcements will be made in due course including an update on the anchor space, where following the approval of its CVA, Debenhams has confirmed that it will not be progressing with its new store.”
Mike Bell, senior asset manager at The Crown Estate, which owns a 50 per cent stake in Fosse Park, said: “Following the news that Debenhams will not be taking a store at Fosse Park, we have been actively working with the local authorities on our future plans and engaging with the market to explore exciting new brands for the space when it opens in 2020.
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“We look forward to providing further updates in due course as we create a brilliant place for visitors, shoppers and the local community to enjoy.”
A recently refurbished Highcross store in Leicester is among a number of Debenhams shops considered safe.
Original planning permission for the Fosse Park shop was on condition that the Highcross store remained open.
The 22 Debenhams stores that will shut early in 2020
They are:
- Altrincham
- Ashford
- Birmingham Fort
- Canterbury
- Chatham
- Eastbourne
- Folkestone
- Great Yarmouth
- Guildford
- Kirkcaldy
- Orpington
- Slough
- Southport
- Southsea
- Staines
- Stockton
- Walton
- Wandsworth
- Welwyn Garden City
- Wimbledon
- Witney
- Wolverhampton
Debenhams’s Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) has allowed the business to keep trading and restructure its expensive leases.
That has seen creditors take control of the business, with shareholders losing millions of pounds.
Leicestershire business news: Summer 2019
Work is well underway building on the former Everards brewery site next to Fosse Park, which will have 143,633 sq ft of floorspace with additional mezzanine space of 162,190 sq ft.
Fosse Park West will be linked by a redeveloped food court. Along with £5 million being spent improving existing communal areas and parking spaces at Fosse Park, it takes the total investment to £168 million.
Everards, meanwhile, is building a new brewery on land across the road.