Grand plans have been unveiled which will transform parts of Eldon Square with new sports and leisure venues, creating more than 400 new jobs.
Empty and underused parts of the city centre shopping complex – including the former Debenhams department store and Eldon Leisure Centre – are poised to welcome new national leisure operators, amid moves which will bring in an extra £16m a year to the area’s economy.
The reconfiguration plans follow the high profile collapse of a number of big retail names in recent years, including Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins and Debenhams, leaving more than 200,000sqft of space empty in Newcastle city centre. However, Eldon Square bosses say they want to take advantage of the space and use it as an opportunity to bring new names into the area, while also creating new jobs.
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The plans involve creating two new venues offering a mix of family-focused leisure, culture and entertainment, including crazy golf and electric karting. The first will be a family leisure attraction, blending of indoor sports and entertainment across part of the centre including the former Eldon Leisure Centre.
A national family leisure operator is being lined up to transform the space – which has lain empty since the start of the first national Covid lockdown in 2020 – into a new family sports and games centre. The plans will see the space join up with the upper mall level to the south of Blackett Street to create a huge, 120,000sqft space for the operator to provide indoor activities from arcade games and virtual reality, to crazy golf and electric karting.
The proposals also include new food and drink offers and live entertainment to create a new leisure for the city centre. External changes are proposed to modernise the Blackett Street frontage into Eldon Square, introduce a terrace garden overlooking Old Eldon Square and provide a separate ground floor entrance for the national family leisure operator.
Meanwhile, at the former Debenhams unit, centre bosses say the second venue promises to bring a vibrant mix of “food, socialising, art, cultural entertainment and music performance” into the vacant top floor of the former department store. The Eldon Square team is now in discussions with two well-known specialist operators, who are keen to bring their leisure offers to Newcastle. By removing limited parts of the building’s roof, there will also be a recessed external seating area with a retractable roof.
Plans are already well advanced for an as yet unnamed major national retailer to take on the lower two floors of the former Debenhams store. Planning applications are now being prepared and they will be on display to the public in the former Paperchase unit at St Andrew’s Way in Eldon Square on Saturday, December 2.
Cormac Hamilton, Eldon Square general manager, said: “Since taking responsibility for the management of Eldon Square, we have worked hard to ensure that vacant retail space within the Shopping Centre is reoccupied by new retailers wherever possible. However, large units such as the former Debenhams have been purpose-built as department stores, which makes them difficult to re-let unaltered.
“We are confident that we can soon announce the retailer who will be taking two floors within the former Debenhams department store, and we are delighted that the remaining space will also be brought back into productive use. The leisure occupier that we are in advanced talks with is a leader in their field and they will bring something truly unique to Newcastle. They will act as incubators for local culinary and musical talent, offering a platform to showcase their skills to both residents and visitors.
“Complementing this will be the national family leisure operator and their phenomenal range of indoor fun and entertainment for all. The former Leisure Centre is an amazing space for the city centre. Combining this with adjacent space creates an extraordinary venue. The breadth of the operator’s offer means that they should have something for everyone under one roof.
“These changes will help to generate a large number of new jobs and bring a new vibrancy and extra footfall to the city. We look forward to sharing more information with the community on Saturday 2 December. We hope that people will come along and see for themselves what is being proposed.”
Commenting on the announcement, Stephen Patterson, chief executive of NE1 Ltd, the Business Improvement District company for Newcastle city centre said: “This is great news for Newcastle, its residents and visitors to the city. Thankfully, the city centre has relatively low vacancy rates and there is strong demand for the right property in the right location.
“These plans provide an innovative and exciting use of current vacant retail space, that will deliver investment, jobs and perhaps most importantly an uplift on what is currently on offer in the city. Newcastle is a growing city and it is hugely important that it continues to evolve. As the city grows, its offer must too. This is a fantastic step in the right direction.”
