Primark's newly refurbished flagship store at Bank Buildings in Belfast is set to reopen this year.
A target reopening date of the first week of November 2022 has been announced. It comes after a fire broke out at the premises on August 28, 2018 while the Caste Street store was undergoing a major refurbishment and extension that was estimated to cost £30m.
The new Primark flagship store will feature 88,200 sq. ft. of brand-new retail space, (an increase of 76% from the previous store size), with a new fifth floor in-store which will house a new Home department featuring Primark’s full homeware range of accessories, bedding and small furniture for the first time.
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The store will also feature a brand-new Disney café located on the second floor and a new nail and beauty studio for customers.
Primark’s existing store on Castle Street will merge with the restored Bank Buildings site to create the new larger store. As part of this, the smaller Primark store at Fountain House, Donegall Place will close in the days before the Bank Buildings re-opening, with all employees transferring back to the new store.
Paul Marchant, Primark CEO, said: “We want to thank the people of Belfast for their ongoing support and patience whilst we undertook the extensive re-building works at our iconic Bank Buildings site. We recognise how much the business community and wider city of Belfast has been affected by the devastating fire at our store back in 2018. We have put our heart and soul into retaining, conserving and restoring this much-loved historical building. We are nearly there with this re-development, and we cannot wait to finally re-open the doors and welcome our customers and our colleagues back into our Bank Buildings store.”
Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Tina Black added: “This is a major investment in Belfast city centre after a challenging time for our local economy. The devastating fire at Bank Buildings in 2018 was a turning point for our city; it acted as a springboard in bringing elected members and city partners together to examine and trial new ideas and concepts to support recovery and regeneration and increase what the city centre has to offer. Many of these projects have now been incorporated into our Future City Centre programme.
This has been a long and complex restoration project, and local traders and shoppers have shown great patience and resilience. We hope the opening of Primark’s extended flagship store will provide a major boost to businesses, particularly in the run-up to the busy Christmas season.”
Belfast Chamber Chief Executive Simon Hamilton said: “This is really positive news for Belfast and will provide our city centre with a much needed boost.
"Primark is an exceptionally popular store that drives footfall into Belfast from far and wide and its loss after the fire nearly four years ago was acutely felt across the city centre.
"It is a massive vote of confidence in Belfast that Primark is investing so much and coming back bigger and better and I am sure it will greatly assist Belfast in its ongoing recovery and regeneration. Reopening the store at Bank Buildings will also, in effect, reopen parts of the city centre that have been closed off or difficult to access due to the construction work at Primark and this too will hugely help our city centre”.
Primark say customers to the new Bank Buildings store can look forward to shopping the latest affordable autumn fashion trends, in addition to Primark’s great value essentials across women’s, men’s, kids’ and homeware, as well as beauty and accessories. It will be home to a new dedicated denim trend space featuring a variety of core styles.
Alongside Primark’s significant investment in the re-development of its Bank Buildings site, it is also looking forward to its new store opening in Rushmere Shopping Centre, Craigavon later this year.
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