Retailers forced to move as Walsall shopping centre shuts top floor
A whole floor of a Walsall shopping centre is to be closed, leaving half a dozen independent retailers looking for a new home during lockdown.
In another blow to the town’s ailing town centre, Park Place Shopping Centre owners LCP properties confirmed they will close off the top floor and look at revitalising the “substantially empty” space.
A number of units on the upper level have lain empty for years and six small businesses - including Revolution Records, Park Place Meats and Clive Mark schoolwear - were given the news before Christmas they’d have to vacate when their leases were up.
Major retailers including Boots, Greggs and Wilkinson - all based on the ground floor of Park Place - will remain.
The mall, previously named the Quasar Centre, has been in the town for around 40 years and once boasted an indoor market alongside all the shops.
This news comes just weeks after Debenhams, which has a department store in Walsall’s Old Square Shopping Centre, announced it is to shut. In recent years, the town has lost giants such as Marks and Spencer and BHS.
Revolution Records opened in November 2017 selling vinyl, CDs, DVDs and accessories and have hosted popular annual Record Store Day events there.
When Covid struck, owners Harcharan Singh Pala and David Hughes built up their online store were getting by on mail order sales and a click and collect service during lockdown.
But a letter from LCP on December 11 gave them just a month to leave, despite Christmas and lockdown severely hampering efforts to find new premises.
They were eventually granted a couple of extra weeks to stay and will now temporarily move into the Retail Multiples centre in the former BHS store to continue their click and collect service will they try to find a new permanent home.
Mr Hughes said: “We worked hard to keep the business going during lockdown so this news was a real kick in the teeth for us.
“Not only was it at Christmas but the latest lockdown arrangements has made it even more difficult to find an affordable, suitable unit to move into so quickly.
“As we had a ‘tenancy at will’ rolling contract, they wouldn’t give us a meaningful extension to stay, despite the fact other businesses who have longer leases will be there for some time.
“We have arranged to move across the road in order to continue click and collect and mail orders.
“We are committed to staying in Walsall and are looking at a few options. With all that’s going on with Covid, we can’t afford to make the wrong decision.”
Park Place Meats has been a fixture in the centre for three decades and the butcher was also given the news just before Christmas.
Owner Nick Moyle said lockdown is making the process of finding a new shop difficult and they were taking “each day as it comes”.
He said: “I’d like to stay in Walsall as we’ve been here for 30 years now but obviously times are hard.
“We have good regular customers and it is they who have kept us going because we have lost all the pub and cafe trade until they reopen.
“The news was a big blow because we have been here for such a long time.
“Now, it’s a waiting game and seeing what comes up for us. My lease is not up yet and I’ve still got a bit of time if I wish to take it. But time is running out.”
A spokeswoman for LCP Properties said: “As landlord and manager, we have made the decision to close the upper level only because this part of the shopping centre has been substantially empty for many years. We are looking at how we can revitalise this centre.”
She added: “Tenants with short-term Tenancy at Will arrangements that trade from the upper level of Park Place Shopping Centre have been given notice to relocate, in accordance with their lease terms.”
