All change: new Wigan shops, Wilko reoccupied and Stack work begins
It is shaping up to be an exciting few weeks for Wigan’s largest shopping mall.
New businesses are on the way, another has been on the move and work has begun to prepare for a new hospitality and entertainment hub – all in the Grand Arcade.
The gigantic former Debenhams store is now a hive of activity with workmen stripping it out in preparation for its becoming the country’s latest Stack next year.
The outlet shop run by charity Rebuild with Hope – which had already partially decamped to the former TK Maxx unit on the first floor – has now moved the rest of its business to what used to be Wilko on Standishgate. An official opening will take place at a later date.
This has allowed workers to start laying bare the one-time department store in the mall ready for the arrvial of Stack.
Planning permission has given for a massive two-storey venture, occupying half of the available space and will include bar areas and food hall operators at ground level with seating and a stage area which will host live entertainment events, including music and comedy nights.
This will be replicated on the first floor.
Major structural work comprises creating an internal balcony (as well as a mezzanine floor) by taking out a large section of the first floor so that those in the upper areas can look down on a newly built stage looking out onto Concert Square.
Grand Arcade manager Mike Matthews said that he expected that work to begin before Christmas.
Meanwhile a new company called I Fix Tech is moving into the unit formerly occupied by The Perfume Shop. And that could just be the beginning.
Mr Matthews said: “I am hoping that we will have two more clients coming into the centre prior to Christmas.
"We also have a lesiure business interested in the other half of the former Debenhams first floor not occupied by Stack and once Stack is in place we think the last quarter, on the ground floor will become more appealing too.
"In all the Grand Arcade could be fully let by the end of the year, which would be a tremendous achievement.”
The mall is also looking forward to the Christmas rush, heralded by the town centre annual parade and lights switch-on on Sunday November 24.
That is when the centre’s own Santa’s grotto – hand-crafted by Grand Arcade staff including Mr Matthews himself and given a candy-cane finish – becomes occupied for the next few weeks.
The news brings hope of a more prosperous 2025 for the town centre which is finally seeing work begin on the new Galleries complex which will begin with a replacement market hall and then include a new, six-storey Hampton by Hilton hotel, hundreds of homes, a cinema and other hospitality and entertainment features.
Down the road phase one of the Eckersley Mills Cotton Works project – comprising a food hall, pub, huge amounts of office space (already fully let) and a rooftop bar – is set to be complete by the late spring.