PHARMACY chain Boots could become the first tenant at the former site of British Home Stores (BHS) in Belfast city centre.
It has emerged in recent weeks that Boots may be re-locating from its current city centre premises at Donegall Place to become the first of two tenants to move into the former BHS store at Castle Lane.
BHS closed its doors in Belfast in August 2016 and site owners M&G Real Estate, along with Belfast firm Todd Architects, submitted a planning application in November proposing refurbishment and reconfiguration of the store building.
The proposals, which are still under consideration, involve the subdivision of the site into standalone units at Castle Place and Castle Lane, the former 21,679 sq ft in size and the latter, a larger 71,126 sq ft unit.
The plans also include the installation of new external fabric, new entrances, shop fronts, service access and services connections.
Given the size of the current Boots store on Donegall Place, which encompasses two floors, the larger unit at Castle Lane would be the more likely destination for the new city centre store.
Boots has not completely dismissed speculation over a possible move, but a spokesperson said there is nothing to share about Belfast from the company's development programme or from its estates team at present.
It is understood, however that the company would not be able to comment on any formal plans until an agreement was legally binding.
A spokesperson from M&G Real Estate said they were "unable to comment on speculation".
After 50 years as a firm fixture at the heart of the city centre, BHS closed its doors on August 28, 2016 at a cost of 57 jobs.
It was one of four stores in the north, alongside Abbeycentre, Bow Street Mall in Lisburn and Holywood Exchange to fall victim to the company's untimely demise, with a total of 152 local staff affected by the closure
