Retailer secured for empty city centre premises

A growing beds and furniture retailer will move into a vacant store in central Hull.

Wykeland Group has secured the new occupier for this empty property, just days after announcing it had acquired the building.

It has let the 35,000 sq ft former New Look unit in Whitefriargate to Durham Bed Centre.

The Hull store will be the latest opening by Durham Bed Centre outside its heartland in the North East where it has seven stores and is the region’s largest independent bed and furniture retailer, wholesaler and manufacturer.

The expansion of the business across the North of England has also seen Durham Bed Centre open stores in Leeds, Warrington in Cheshire, and Bootle on Merseyside.

It will be stocking a wide range of beds, sofas and other furniture at the Whitefriargate store, which is due to open on June 15.

This will ensure the 42,000 sq ft building that the unit forms part of will once again be fully occupied, as music and entertainment retailer HMV is also due to re-open following its temporary closure because of the Coronavirus outbreak.

Wykeland announced the acquisition of the building and also the neighbouring 60,000 sq ft former Marks and Spencer store in Whitefriargate last week.

Wykeland property director, David Donkin, said: “The arrival of Durham Bed Centre will bring additional footfall to Whitefriargate as shops and other businesses re-open following the Covid-19 disruption.

“We’re very pleased to have brought this vacant unit back to life so quickly.

“This reflects the short-term strategy we envisaged when making these acquisitions, while we consider the longer-term re-purposing of the buildings as part of a broader picture of regeneration and reinvention for Whitefriargate and Hull city centre.”