A demolished shopping centre in a town “cannot create a big hole which becomes a blight”, council bosses have said.
Crompton Place shopping centre in Bolton is due to be demolished next year and talks have begun with developers over possible temporary uses once the debris has been cleared.
The work will re-establish a direct link between Victoria Square and Bradshawgate.
A £250m planned revamp of the site was scrapped after the coronavirus pandemic meant the scheme was no longer viable.
Crompton Place shopping centre was built in 1971 and was bought by Bolton Council for £14.8m in 2018.
Councillor Akhtar Zaman, deputy leader of Bolton Council, said the redevelopment of the ara will be the authority’s “flagship regeneration project” – but councillors don’t want to “demolish the shopping centre bit by bit”.
Zaman said: “We do not want to create a big hole in Bolton town centre which then becomes a blight for the area.
“Our ambition is that, by the time we demolish Crompton Place, something will be in place”.
By demolishing Crompton Place, the council said it aimed to present potential investors with a spade-ready development site in a prime location.
The authority hopes it will include a mix of residential, hospitality, leisure and offices.
Only a handful of shops remain in the Crompton Place shopping centre.
Bolton Council has been working to relocate the existing tenants, including Primark, which is moving to the nearby Market Place shopping centre.
Stephen Warren, who runs a watch repair business in the centre, told Radio Manchester: “We moved into Crompton Place in 2006. Last year, Marks & Spencer moved out and the footfall went down.
“Since then, its got a lot quieter but luckily we’ve been going for so long that we still have our regular customers, so we’re just waiting for the council to deal with us”.
The rise in online shopping has meant the closure of several big-name stores in Bolton.
Beales, the former Whitakers store, closed in 2016 and BHS closed in the same year.
Debenhams closed its store in the town in 2021.
Dorothy Kenworthy, who has lived in Breightmet for 47 years, said: “Bolton town centre has changed a lot over the years.
“We had loads of shops and it was very busy. It’s such a shame that it’s gone because it used to be a really nice little town.”
