By HELEN COMPSON

Published at 13:13, Thursday, 08 January 2009

MULTI-MILLION pound plans to revolutionise Hexham’s high street were unveiled just a few short months ago.

Today, they sit firmly on the back-burner as the economic downturn begins to bite.

In May, the proposed replacement of the faded Robb’s building on Fore Street with a new £40million retail development was announced.

Property owners Buccleuch Group said the department store premises would be demolished to make way for a “remarkable new building” that would be modern, stylish and contemporary.

Three months previously the Co-op had announced plans to build two major new retail units designed to attract more national high street chains to the town.

This week spokesmen for both Buccleuch Group and the Co-op indicated their plans were now “in the slow lane”.

The Co-op said it would build the two proposed units, next door to Marks & Spencer in Maiden’s Walk, if and when it found tenants.

Providing a combined floor space of around 3,500 sqm, including mezzanine floors, the units would be tailored to the requirements of major non-food retailers.

A chemist and a clothing chain were thought to be interested when the plans were first announced.

A spokesman said: “We are currently marketing the units through an agent, but have no plans to build until an agreement is in place with a future tenant.”

The commercial property director at Buccleuch Property, Nick Waugh, said that while its plans for the Robb’s building were not on hold, they were not being progressed at pace.

“We are working through the process, but there is no incentive to speed that process up for obvious reasons,” he said.

“It would be wrong not to take into account what’s happening on our high street.

“We have to consider what effect the current economic conditions will have in the medium to long term before we can bring forward appropriate plans.”

Amid the doom and gloom, the Robb’s retail business itself offered a beacon of hope this Christmas.

Owned by Liverpool-based David Thompson though his company Vergo Retail, during a turbulent few weeks in 2007, he took Robb’s both into and out of administration.

The business had thrived during the past year, he said, and he was entering 2009 with a fair degree of optimism.

A wide-ranging stock and some aggressive sales promotions had attracted a steady flow of customers.

“We are having an extremely good year in Hexham relative to a background that is pretty gloomy,” he said.

“There will certainly be fewer people out there in the retail world at the end of the next 12 months – we are already seeing them disappear.

“We are going to keep our heads down and although the cake will be smaller, the slices will be bigger.”

While Robb’s was an institution in Tynedale and customers had shown it tremendous loyalty, the shop was flourishing because it stocked what people wanted.

Customers in the end, he said, had run out of reasons to shop at somewhere like Woolworth’s.

Rather than facing a dip in trade in its highly profitable food hall, Robb’s had seen off the competition presented by the arrival of Tesco, Waitrose and M&S.

“We have actually picked up extra trade and our food business has improved consistently, which I find very encouraging,” said Mr Thompson.

“We are doing something right!”

The Marks & Spencer store in Hexham appears to escaped unscathed this week as two of its department stores, 25 of its Simply Food outlets and just over 1,200 staff were axed.

Hexham’s staff were reassured on Wednesday that their jobs were safe.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk