Sainsbury's in talks with firms to secure Wolverhampton site's future

Sainsbury's will move across Wolverhampton city centre from its store on St George's Parade into a new £60 million site on Raglan Street on July 9.

One city councillor called for the site to be turned into a designer outlet to avoid it becoming an eyesore.

But bosses from the retail giant said talks were being held over its future.

Sainsbury's spokesman David Mills said: "We are currently marketing the site and are in a number of discussions regarding its future use. We will update the community when we are able to."

The new store in Raglan Street is being branded as St Mark's and is a 72,500sq ft site.

It will contain a 700-space car park, a 15,000 sq ft gym, a recycling centre, an Explore Learning centre for children and a petrol station.

The St George's Parade supermarket will close its doors the day before on July 8 with 192 staff moving to the new store across the city.

But Councillor Zahid Shah who represents St Peter's ward in the city centre has called on Sainsbury's to secure investment for the site.

He said: "If the shop is left empty for too long it could become a target for vandals and even squatters. Wolverhampton city centre does not need this. We want to see investment and we want to see investment in a location many people are driving past every day.

"It is crying out for designer outlets. Something similar to Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. People are driving miles to shop there so why can't we have that where Sainsbury's is now? It would be perfect and what a statement it would be in addition to Debenhams coming to Wolverhampton."

Sainsbury's won the right to build at Raglan Street after a 10 year battle with Tesco which went all the way to the Supreme Court

Work began in October 2012, but was halted after just 10 weeks because of legal issues as Tesco owned the land at the time.

Construction resumed in October last year and will have taken 35 weeks since then to complete if the store opens on time.