Sad to see that Candlers, one of Felixstowe’s longest established retailers, is closing on the owners retirement – but it does mean that there’s a shop-full of traditional , high-quality furniture on sale at half it’s previous retail price.
I assume that this means that the premises themselves will soon be up for sale, too. It is a very large site, complete with upper floor, large warehouse and car/truck parking at the rear, and I think it would be ideally place for a town-centre Wetherspoons – I keep telling them we could do with one of their food pubs in town!
Another very “Felixstowe” shop to go is the long-established Bonnet’s cafe . . its been a very popular venue for the town’s ladies who lunch, and rather a lot of them did . . .
The notice in the window says that the business has been closed due to a combination of ill-health and declining business.
I rather suspect that some of the town’s lunchers have found the attractions of Chris Dane’s Corner Cafe, just across the road, rather too tempting – its sometimes hard to find an empty table at busy times of the day, which demonstrates that he has got both his sums right, and his food and hospitality offering right, too.
It’ll be interesting to see where the rest of Felixstowe retail population goes during the remains of this winter and spring. Shop owners seem to have done quite well, compared to some other towns, but our percentage of vacant premises has certainly risen in the past few weeks . .
And finally?
Yes, sorry, I’m still fed-up with this one – the piece of Felixstowe’s prime shopping estate that is closed as a shop but still run as an office by Oxfam, right in the centre of Hamilton Road.
I’m not very sure of the position of this kind of premise. Oxfam ran it as a shop, but closed it down in that role a couple of years ago. Since then, its been used as some kind of internet marketing centre or similar, not open to the public, and with the window crudely papered over. The paper has now come off, but it isn’t any more attractive than before.
I’d be very glad to see some town or district councillor, or the district council, take a closer look at this one. Do Oxfam have the right to take a retail shop out of retail use? Have they converted it into an office use without permission?
http://www.felixstowenews.tv/
Its not only those units that are empty, the list is growing by the day:
ReplyDeleteSelect (empty for a year now - Did you know Select have an expansion program & this store was only one in country to close, according to the manager due to the drop in footfall since shared space.)
Nucleus Watersports - CLOSED (They still have an essex store, again manager quoted it was due to drop in footfall in Felixstowe store since shared space.)
Opal Bathrooms - moved out of town due to rates rise (At least they are still trading!)
Magpie Books - Closes this Month.
Miss Magpies Emporium (Kiddies clothes shop) - Closed
Lloyds/TSB building still empty.
Rayners Opticians - CLOSED
K&B Bathrooms - CLOSED (Moved out of Felixstowe)
Potential loss of Peacocks and Bonmarche, if buyer not found with next few weeks, what a terrible situation.
I have spoken to traders in town recently who revealed their rate rise was a staggering £500 a month (50% increase), they said they are sitting out their lease for a few of years and making plans to leave Felixstowe.
Interestingly the VOA only revalued the Shared Space area, despite the government rules on using a guidance date of 1st April 2008. No wonder we are losing so many businesses. This may kinda explain why so many shops opening in the non shared space area such as fish shop and new gift shop. They have created a two tier rating system for the town.
A very sad tale indeed..........where will it all end ?.
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