A retail expert brought in to spearhead Aberdeen’s city centre revival has declared that letting the sprawling, empty Debenhams unit in the city’s Trinity Centre is his number one mission.
Talking to The Press and Journal, Jonathan De Mello, the international retail consultant hired by Aberdeen Inspired, confirmed:
“My first job is filling the empty Debenhams unit. That’s the top priority. It’s a huge space and it’s right at the heart of the city centre, so getting the right occupier in there will send a really strong signal that Aberdeen is open for business again.”
The newspaper revealed De Mello had toured the city centre’s vacant units with council officials, examining each one before picking out the former Debenhams site as a priority.
De Mello, whose firm JDM Retail has a “100%” track record of transforming city centres across the UK, expressed optimism about Aberdeen’s prospects. In an exclusive talk with the P&J, he said: “We wouldn’t even think of taking this on if we didn’t think we could be successful. Aberdeen is a great city from this perspective, it’s self-contained… There is an affluence here that is not in some of the cities that I’ve looked at.”
He added: “I reckon we can make fairly material change in the space of six months to a year, in terms of at least signing some people up and coming up with a strategy.”
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However, the task is not without hurdles. The Press and Journal has previously reported that ongoing uncertainty over city centre access – such as the controversial bus gates – has deterred some potential tenants from committing to the Debenhams site, despite “considerable interest from retailers.”
De Mello’s approach involves diagnosing the city’s retail gaps and targeting both independent and global brands. He explained: “What we want to do is take Aberdeen up the hierarchy locally, but also nationally as well. So really it’s just addressing the structural issues we’ve seen in the sector, the decline of the High Street, what we can do to change that and also looking at future-proofing the city through the new things that are coming in.”
Filling retail space in Aberdeen remains a complex challenge, shaped by factors such as ongoing uncertainty over city centre access, the impact of measures like bus gates, and the need to attract the right mix of tenants. While there is considerable interest from retailers, these hurdles continue to deter some potential occupiers, underlining the importance of strategic planning and city centre revitalisation efforts.
