Old Stafford M&S sold but fails to reach guide price at auction
The Gaolgate Street building sold for a bargain £300,000.
The former Marks & Spencer shop in Stafford will be given a new lease of life after it was sold at auction.
The Gaolgate Street building, which has been empty for almost 18 months, sold for £300,000 at an Allsop auction in London this week.
Bidding on the landmark store was expected to be much higher with a guide price at auction of between £350,000 and £400,000.
It has stood vacant since August 2016, when Marks & Spencer moved to the Riverside shopping complex at the other end of the town centre.
The sale was one of two buildings on the town’s high street sold at auction this week, after the Halifax building in Greengate Street fetched £850,000.
The bank, which is still currently occupied, has been bought with the benefit of Halifax keeping the lease, according to the auctioneers.
The property was let to the Bank of Scotland PLC – trading as Halifax – for a term of 15 years from November 15 2016.
It is not yet known who the buyer of either property is.
Councillor Chris Baron, who represents the Forebridge town centre ward, said she was disappointed to see the old Marks & Spencer sell below its valuation but hoped it would stay as a retail unit.
“It’s good news for the town and I hope it gets turned into a shop,” she said.
“It is a shame it sold so cheaply but if someone is going to do something to the building then that’s the most important thing – I’d like to think its going to be a retail unit though
“I was walking through this end of town the other day and there’s quite a lot of shops there, we just don’t have an anchor store.
"We need someone to move into the old Marks & Spencer now.
"There are a few shops around there but there’s just not main anchor place to draw people to that end of town.”
Holmcroft councillor Jonathan Price, who runs a computer shop nearby, added: “Somebody has bought themselves a bargain.
"I am pleased it has sold because someone obviously wants to do something with it.”
It comes after it was revealed that the Kingsmead Retail Park could be on course for McDonald’s to open a restaurant there.
Developers Triple Jersey Limited have submitted an application for the two-storey restaurant and drive-thru, which would become the third McDonald's within a one-mile radius.
