Off Topic Sunderland City Centre gutted

4th biggest town in the UK to have no rail connection. Confident that will change soon.

 

And this...
https://faulknerbrowns.com/featured-work/culture-house

 

Really do not like this as it is just a square brick building with buff colored bricks and a few square windows, may look nice on drawings but in reality there has been very little thought put into the architectural aesthetics. It is another square building to sit next to other square buildings and does not set itself apart from anything else in the City centre as new and innovative.

 

They need to do something with the Debenhams site.

I’d be looking at converting that into an indoor market, segregating the space. And they need to sort that car park out while they are on having to do a marathon trek to get out of it due to the store being closed is utterly ridiculous.

 

Had to help some elderly gent to find exit yesterday

 

Absolutely berserk to get out of there ain’t it. Like a ****ing treasure hunt but the treasure is a poverty looking spiral concrete staircase leading to a bunch of mismatched empty buildings.

Shocking state.

 

The outlets in Debenhams , Morgan, Jane Norman etc were being charge £100,000 pa , this before making a profit and paying for the overheads for their retail space footprint.. Until the rents are brought down to a realistic level Debenhams will stay shut for any SME's.

 

Aye I used to run concessions in Debenhams few years ago but that was Debenhams charging and it’s now closed.

The building can now be repurposed and that wouldn’t apply.

 

It’s like the council would rather see empty buildings than reduce rent, which is mind boggling.

 

Moving M&S to Washington where free parking is abundant is probably the reason for closing High Street. We use it on a regular basis, its not any dearer than Tescos, Sainsbury even Asda nowadays and you can always rely on good products. Until the Council stop charging for parking in the city centre, I believe this has help significantly with the drop off of people going into town, the problem will remain..Couple that with trying to get the folk of Sunderland to only use the buses , in Bus lane City, is going to fail and that will also hit these bus Company's eventually. The Council will not be satisfied until the city centre is a wasteland.

 

That’s just the rent, if you could find out the business rates you would s hit yourself.

 

I know the rates, I've had to pay enough of them.

 

Getting flatten along with the rest of crow tree apparently

 

Makes sense, as long as doesn’t stand derelict for 15 years

 

Are they modelling the Town Centre on that of Beirut?

 

let me guess, disconcerting it to a park?

 

Knocking it down and building a 10k seated arena with food, drink and event space is the plan that has been submitted

 

A fantastic replacement for Debenhams and that part of the Bridges then.

 

I’ve heard today that Jamesons is closing at the end of the year, not renewing the lease or it’s not up for renewal. This is only from a mate and not someone ‘itk”.

 

This council is and has been for years ,destroying our city....All I want is a council that care for the survival of the shopping precincts and its rate payers.