Fifty-year-old shopping complex to be demolished for city centre transformation
The Kirkgate Shopping Centre, in Bradford, is to be knocked down as part a major city centre transformation programme.
Bradford Council has confirmed it has bought the shopping centre for £15.5m with plans to demolish it.
This will see retailer Primark move from Kirkgate into the empty former Debenhams unit in the nearby Broadway Shopping Centre, with other stores offered support to relocate to other vacant properties.
The council intends to replace the Kirkgate Centre with green space, housing and small commercial spaces.
It links to plans to build housing on the Oastler Market site. That property will also be knocked down once the new Darley Street Market – opposite Kirkgate – opens its doors.
The Kirkgate Centre opened in 1976 and was then called the Arndale Centre. It currently hosts 46 shops and food and drink businesses but in recent years has suffered from a large number of vacant premises.
Bradford Council says the centre is unlikely to close soon. There will be a period of around two years before Primark moves and work to wind down the centre starts.
Councillor Alex Ross Shaw, executive member for planning, regeneration and transport, told the Telegraph & Argus newspaper: “With Kirkgate demolished the city village can expand. It will become a mix of green space and different housing types.
“It will be housing led, but with commercial space on the ground floors of some of the new buildings. There will be a lot more green infrastructure than in current housing developments.
“We need to get a good housing mix. It needs to be something different; we don’t want just one bed flats or bedsits. We want more families and more young professionals.”
“It will be a high quality development that will introduce something new to the city.”
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