Beatties' future discussed as fight goes on for store

Shops, apartments, offices and even a hotel are among the ideas being looked at.

Last month, Wolverhampton Council launched a last-ditch bid to save the department store, one of 31 earmarked for closure by House of Fraser, but officials are realistic about the chances of reversing the closure decision.

Speaking to the Express & Star, the authority’s newly-appointed managing director Tim Johnson said: “There is a conversation with House of Fraser as a business. And the degree from which we are able to influence that, I suspect, is fairly minimal.

“But what we want to make sure is that if the store closes, how we can primarily support the people who work in that business to find alternative work?

“We are also in dialogue with the actual owners of the building itself, looking at alternative uses and how we can support them to rethink what the building becomes.”

Mr Johnson has long been involved in city centre development through his role as director of place, before taking over from Keith Ireland last week.

He said future uses of the building had to meet city demand and a vision to attract more people into the city.

He said: “Simply having an iconic building like that in the centre of our city lying vacant for the next five to 10 years is not an option so we have got to come up with some creative solutions.

“So that may involve some retail, it may involve other commercial uses, may involve residential, may involve education – all the things that have a future requirement for space.

“Just because it was a department store, it doesn’t necessary follow that it always can and should be.”

It was also suggested by Mr Johnson that House of Fraser had failed to follow modern shopping requirements since taking over the site in 2005.

He said: “I think you could argue that part of the reason some businesses are in the state they are is because they have not invested in that space, they haven’t kept up with modern consumer requirements and any business which does not do that is going to have a difficult future.” Mr Johnson is to meet bosses of House of Fraser next month. The meeting was set to be a springboard for the last-ditch attempt to save the store. But Mr Johnson played down hopes of halting the closure plan.

He said: “The business itself is pretty clear that it has a plan to close that store and there are still ongoing discussions about whether that is absolutely going to happen but their clearly stated intention is that they are going to close a number of stores across the business, Wolverhampton unfortunately being one of them.

“We are ready to have some grown-up conversation about it. Is there anything which could change any of that? Or maybe it will be more like ‘it’s happening guys’ and then it is about managing that process.”

Almost 300 people work at Beatties. Under House of Frasers’ closure plan, it will shut next year.