Debenhams still keen on Wolverhampton move
Wednesday 26th January 2011, 5:00PM GMT.
A major department store due to anchor Wolverhampton’s failed £300 million Summer Row shopping centre today revealed it was still interested in opening a store in the city.
Debenhams was taking on a major part of the 600,000 sq ft shopping centre, while Marks & Spencer had also signed a deal to move in.
Today Debenhams spokeswoman Lizzie Singleton: “We are very interested in Wolverhampton.”
M&S also said it remained committed to Wolverhampton, where it has a store in Dudley Street, but declined to comment further.
The axing of the Summer Row yesterday came after around seven years of planning and preparatory work.
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Sums up the face that a new development is not required to bring the big names to Wton.
Looks like they were waiting for that before signing leases elsewhere.
Maybe now they will look to sign leases with existing retail locations within the city.
Wton council should now look at alternative uses for derelict sites such as new affordable housing???
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It would be good for Wolverhampton to have a store such as Debenhams move in to the city.It would create new jobs and give shoppers a better choice,the city council needs to do everything it can to encourage new shops/business in to the city,far too many shops are left standing empty which is a blight on the city’s landscape.
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Well what can we say.
our lives have been on hold for 6 years now.
My heath as suffered so bad with the worry of it all and this is the outcome and yet again we hear it from the express and star not the council. who are these people who have let wolverhampton go to even more rack and ruin waiting for this development to go ahead .
They have just walked over the people who have a buisiness in the area and they did not give a moment thought to them.
People stopped coming here because of the redevelopment because they were told how good it was going to be what will happen now?.
I feel so ill and depressed about it were do we go now having a buisiness in a run down pit that it has become. I beleieve it is time for us all to get together and sue like we said we would. They cannot get away with treating people like this.
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here here! no offers of compensation for our loses and lost trade, not even an apology!!!!
Could Debenhams, not take on old rackhams/netto building?
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Why can’t Debenhams move into Woolworths old store?
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If it’s not big enough, why not H&M, who took over the old woolies in Shrewsbury!!
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There s plenty of room for debenhams and m&s at bentley bridge
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The local people have been let down again. After so much promise of a brighter future nothing is going to happen. The Mander Centre is already partly empty and is starting to look very gloomy and lack lustre and seems to be attracting less shoppers every week. Bentley Bridge has been suggested for Debenhams but I want to shop in the city centre not somewhere it takes me twice as long to get to.
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Bentley Bridge is the future. free parking, easy to get to and all in close proximity
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It is not if u dont drive and cant get there andy.
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Dudley Town Centre would be the best place in the black Country for large department stores to move to and revialise it!
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wolverhampton is never going to be a city at best its a decent town ,
Birmingham is a propper city centre.
Town cannot compete with the big out of town shopping centres, they offer something the town cannot , A shopping experience especily in the Merry hill centre. But the downside of this especily in the Now dying dudley borough
it killed everything around it. even effected Wolverhampton!
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Its great that Debenhams still want to move into Wolverhampton, but it is still obvious that the private sector don’t want to invest in Wolverhampton, otherwise Summer Row would have happend along time ago!!!!
There arn’t any suitable stores in City for a New Department store! All the stores in Wolverhampton are too small and rates are too high. New outlets need to be built to house larger stores like this!
Bentley Bridge is just a rediculous suggestion, trying to attract people to the City Centre not make them go else where!!!!
I have said it all along maybe a company like Westfield would have been the better developer as they would have managed the centre too!
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shame about the summer row project and if only wton council listen to all the small retailers and put the rents of the mander centre and wulfrun centre down id be happy to move in there.Whats the point paying over the top rents and service charges where the shops are half empty.debenhams can now dictate on the rent to pay to the council and decide where they want to open the premises.
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The old Matalan Site would be ideal for Debenhams, lets be a little more proactive than the Council in attracting investment into the Town.
I am unsure what the economic regeneration are doing, but there are a number of suitable sites
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Let’s hope Debenhams puts its money where its mouth is. Sainsburys and Tesco build their own stores – they don’t hang about waiting for someone else to build it (and pay for it) for them.
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Wolverhampton should now loose its city title it is not a city it is a run down town and the most. And boyce from the council who was getting £2500 a week wages let this happen.
What a wage for sitting there and letting this slip away he is a disgusting person who has taken this big wage every week and done nothing to earn it. He lied on tv and to the the press saying he would keep the cpo resident in the loop they have never had him come near them unless the expres and star got him there. and then it was a load of rubbish coming from his mouth .
I hope he is happy with the way he has ran this because we are not
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totally agree. I’m still waiting for offical notice!!!!
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totally agree, I’m still waitng for official notice of summer row end!!!!
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So what is stopping them? There is land available… There are empty stores… The old Coop is largely empty… Is Woolworth’s let yet? Don’t forget there were two sales floors above what is now Boots too.
M & S reduced the size of their store and removed access from Market Street… Very interested in Wton… and yet their store in Wton is markedly more busy than other branches I have visited.
How about St George’s Church? Sainsbury must surely be about to vacate that… How about Debenhams establishing themselves there? Surely they are a draw in themselves? or do they rely on other firms to bring in the customers?
Then there is Mander House…..
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