Mander Centre: Future looking bright for revamped Wolverhampton shopping centre
A sunlit atrium featuring glass-sided walkways above the new H&M and Debenhams store – this is a peek into how Wolverhampton's revamped Mander Centre will look.
Work on fitting out the new Debenhams will get under way next spring, it has been revealed. And the keys to the flagship store are due to be handed over in April, with bosses aiming to have it open in the autumn to take advantage of the busy run-up to Christmas.
Robert Gough, the Mander Centre's commercial manager and a former senior boss at Debenhams, said: "We can't give a definite date for the Debenham's opening – these questions come down to individual stores and their locations. It generally takes about six months to fit out a store but these things are dictated by the complexities involved with each individual store.
"The most important thing is that it's all coming together. The hard part is over, the eggs have been broken and now it's time to make the omelette. I'm really looking forward to the next 12 months, seeing it all come together." Work on the rebuild, one of the most significant private sector investments in the city in the last 20 years, began in January. The centre's owners, the international property investment group Benson Elliot, have been talking up the city at a business breakfast this week.
Senior director Peter Cornforth said the firm had carried out a rigorous appraisal of Wolverhampton and its prospects before deciding to invest in the city and bosses were in no doubt they had made the right decision.
He urged others to 'shout from the rooftops' that the city was open for business.
The Debenham's store will spread across four floors.
Mr Cornforth was speaking at the flagship breakfast event held as part of the city's Business Week, at the GTG centre, in Wednesfield.
Speaking to an audience of around 200 people from local businesses and organisations, including a delegation from the Chinese city of Anqing visiting the city this week, he said Benson Elliot had carried out a thorough assessment of Wolverhampton and its future prospects before deciding to invest in the city.
With projects such as the £120m transport interchange at the railway station, the success of the city centre's i10 office scheme, and headquarters investments from Wolverhampton-based companies Carillion and Marston's, Mr Cornforth said it was 'a city committed to success'.
And he urged guests at the event to leave and 'shout from the rooftops' that 'Wolverhampton is open for business, it is making it happen. And to invest in Wolverhampton is to make the right decision'.
The event, hosted by former BBC business correspondent Declan Curry, also heard from city council managing director Keith Ireland, who highlighted the i10 office scheme as evidence of the authority being prepared to take 'calculated risks' to encourage investment in Wolverhampton.
Despite expert advice that there was no market for top quality office space in the city, the council had invested £10m in the building and had been proven right. He said it was filled with tenants in just nine months. The event also announced a fresh attempt to change the way Wolverhampton is seen by the wider world. The council has brought in Liverpool-based consultancy Uniform to carry out a process called 'placebranding'.
Uniform's design director Neil Sheaky said the aim was to promote a more positive image of the city.
Another keynote speaker was Stewart Towe, chairman of the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, LEP, the joint business and council body set up to bring new investment and jobs to the area.
Mr Towe said: "Wolverhampton has a key role as a city driving economic growth for the whole of the Black Country."
He added the city accounted for 108,000 of the 442,000 jobs across the four Black Country districts of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley and Sandwell, and was home to more than 8,000 of the area's 33,500 companies. And he praised the city for its leading role in creating the new West Midlands Combined Authority, which will be given responsibility for transport, skills training and creating employment as part of £8 billion in spending devolved to the region from Whitehall. The business breakfast event came after a special reception in the Mayor's Parlour this week to celebrate investment in the city
Trevor Leeks, head of the £1 billion Jaguar Land Rover engine factory on i54, was among the guests, as well as Jeff Shi, the new senior director on the board of Wolverhampton Wanderers followings takeover by Chinese group Fosun. Translation services were laid on for the delegation from Anqing.
