Work on the site is set to begin early next year
We took a look inside Hull’s former Debenhams building ahead of its upcoming regeneration project. Last week Hull City Council approved plans for the former department store to be converted into 178 apartments.
The mammoth city centre store closed its door in 2021 and has sat unused ever since. The property developer behind the project, Doncaster based DBG Group, showed us around the frozen-in-time store before work begins on site early next year.
Before heading inside the Debenhams building, we were shown around City Point (formerly Shirethorn House), which DBG Group have recently turned into 76 apartments. A section in the middle of the building has been cut out to create an atrium space from where the apartments are accessed.
READ MORE: See inside Hull’s former Debenhams department store
Looking inside City Point gives an indication of how the Debenhams site will look once the development is complete as a similar, albeit larger, atrium is planned for the Debenhams site. In creating the atrium in the former Debenhams, some 30,000 tonnes of rubble is expected to be removed from the building.
We then went next door inside the eerily preserved department store. In years gone by the store would have been bustling with people doing their Christmas shopping but it now sits abandoned with clothing items and boxes of shoes only having been recently removed.
Inside, the store is largely as it was when it closed. Signs advertising big name brands remain in place and the tills look ready to serve customers.
In addition to the apartments, the site is to retain some of its retail space. The project includes a number of ground floor retail units along Ferensway and Brock Street.
The project is set to get underway early next year, with completion anticipated towards the end of 2027.
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