Award-winning retail store Primark could be heading to Lancaster, tsking over the Lancaster Market building, virtual-lancaster understands.
Sources report that Allied, owners of the Lancaster Market building, are in advanced talks with the company which has nearly 160 stores in the UK and has seen rapid expansion abroad in the past three years.
Lancaster Market closed last Saturday, slightly ahead of its planned final day. Council officers say they had been told campaign group Occupy Lancaster might try to stage an “event” on its planned closing day of Tuesday 11th September and decided to close the building earlier, apologizing to the remaining six tenants still trading.
The fate of the Market building was discussed behind closed doors at Wednesday’s full Council meeting, with press and public barred from listening to the debate. However, we are informed the Council will pay Allied over £11 million to extract itself from its long-term lease on the building. This figure is much less than the £20 million previously expected.
Primark has operations in the UK,
Spain, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Germany. New stores in the UK include
Edinburgh and Stratford City.