Dudley’s former Woolworths store is to become a mini-shopping mall, creating more than 100 jobs.

Aldridge-based Plaza Malls, which already has a smaller shopping centre in Halesowen, has started work on a £1 million scheme to convert the market place store.

Managing director Tony Swannie said the complex, which is expected to be completed by Christmas, would consist of between 30 and 40 small and medium-sized retail units.

“We have already received 63 inquiries, but not all of these will get a place,” he said. “We’re talking to one or two large investors who want to take us nationwide.”

The new centre will see the store’s old lower ground floor, fronting King Street, reopen for the first time since the 1980s, occupying a total floorspace of 30,000 sq ft. Mr Swannie said his company was looking to take on a total of nine former Woolworths stores across the West Midlands.

“We will be a cross between Selfridge’s and a mini-Merry Hill,” he said. “Shops can be anything from 200 to 2,000 sq ft. It is the only way the smaller retailers can put up a fight.

“There will be between 30 and 40 shops, creating well over 100 jobs,” he said.

Mr Swannie said Plaza Malls had beaten off competition from a 99p retailer to take over the shop. He added he had tried to take over the former Woolworths in Walsall, but was pipped to the post by T J Hughes.

Dudley Council’s cabinet member for regeneration Councillor Les Jones said because the building would be remaining in retail use, the company did not need the authority’s permission.