Chatham's empty Debenhams has been put up for sale as part of plans to bring it back into use. The High Street department store, which closed in 2020, is being marketed for uses such as leisure, community, cultural and education, with housing earmarked on the upper floors. The listing also says that the ground floor of the 130,000 sq ft building could be subdivided to create units of various sizes starting from 5,000 sq ft. Estate agents Lambert Smith Hampton and Sibley Pares are marketing the building for Medway Council after it bought it for just over £2.2m last year using a grant from the government’s Future High Streets Fund. The department store was previously marketed in April 2016 when it was available for £17.8m, although that was for the building's freehold. A report from Medway Council's regeneration overview and scrutiny meeting in December last year revealed that the building was offered to the council at the time, but it decided not to buy it. The new listing is for the leasehold of the building, with offers being accepted for new leases, long leasehold sales and temporary meanwhile uses. The council says that it's marketing the building as a whole with options for smaller leases. Any proposed use of the ground floor will need to "provide an active frontage and increase footfall and vibrancy" to the High Street. Organisations are being given the opportunity to submit their proposals as part of the recent listing, but the council is still considering to redevelop the building themselves.
The redevelopment could cost up to £17.8m, which would be funded from short-term borrowing and repaid through the sale of the homes on the upper floors. Chatham's Debenhams building was built in November 1979 as an Allders department store. It was the biggest Allders store in non-metropolitan Kent, employing over 400 staff and costing £4m to build. Allders later went into administration in 2005, with Debenhams taking it over in April of that year. The Debenhams store had menswear, womenswear, childrenswear and a home furnishing department, as well as an in-store restaurant. The closure of the Chatham branch was announced in April 2019 when the retailer marked it out as one of 21 locations to be axed nationwide as part of cost-cutting measures.
K W
26/1/2023 10:27:25
This is a huge bulilding with a few floors
Jason
26/1/2023 23:18:45
Why can't this be a tesco or asda morrison which the town need a food store due all apartments being built upstairs could be medical centre tesco asda would like building that size in high street even morrisons Comments are closed.
|
Archive
August 2023
|