A fresh plan has submitted to make changes to the House of Fraser and Next Beauty at Home stores to make way for more shops and restaurants.
House of Fraser has been in The Oracle shopping centre since it opened in 1999.
But now, shopping centre owners have applied to reduce the department store space in The Oracle and divide it up for different retailers to use. These reconfigured spaces could then be occupied by different shops, cafés or restaurants.
Plans for the future of House of Fraser and Debenhams have been submitted by the centre’s part owners Hammerson.
The Oracle shopping centre has a condition on use dating back to its planning approval in 1997 stating that House of Fraser and former Debenhams unit can only be used as department stores.
The plan seeks to change this condition, while preserving a minimum of 1,000 square metres of floorspace for use as a department store.
That would mean the rest of the space at House of Fraser and the Next Beauty at Home units could be divided up for other retailers to use. These details have been revealed in planning application documents submitted by Hammerson’s agents Turley.
A sketch of existing floorplans highlights both the House of Fraser and the Next Beauty at Home, therefore suggesting that both department store units will be scaled back as part of the plan.
Furthermore, a planning statement from Turley contains the revelation that Next Beauty at Home is set to close later this year.
It states: “Next Home and Beauty have taken occupation of the Debenhams unit but are only trading from one floor and have a very concessionary agreement in place which leaves the landlord with all of the occupational costs for the unit.
“Next Home and Beauty are due to vacate the former Debenhams department store in September 2023.”
Furthermore, Turley agents note that even with Next Beauty at Home occupying the former Debenhams unit, a ‘significant portion’ of it is either vacant or has been used as storage rather than trading space.
They also noted that the plans for The Oracle submitted earlier this year involve the partial demolition of the former Debenhams unit to be replaced with new commercial space and 202 apartments.
You can view the application to make changes to the department store units by typing reference 230682 into Reading Borough Council’s planning portal.
The plan seeks to remove condition 62 of the planning permission for The Oracle centre, reference 970419, which was approved in 1997.
The deadline for comments is Friday, July 28.
READ MORE: Plan to add 449 flats to The Oracle in Reading submitted - see what's proposed here
Existing plans to build 449 flats at the eastern portion of shopping centre are divided into two applications, with 221916 covering the plan north of the River Kennet and 221917 covering the plan south of it.
Approval was granted to replace House of Fraser with a food hall, mini-golf area and bowling alley under reference 191841 in 2020 but has not been enacted due to “changing market requirements and operational demands”.
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