Businesses invited to meeting as plans to transform old Debenhams store heat up

Business owners have been invited to take part in the next step to revitalise a town centre department store.

Kelly Ranger, who has a pop-up market at The Place on New Conduit Street, revealed her plan to revitalise the former Debenhams building on Lynn’s High Street last month.

She hopes to fill it with shopping and leisure attractions, offering businesses a series of self-contained units to operate from.

Now, potential candidates have been urged to go along to an open afternoon at the department store building tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1pm to register their interest.

An agent for the building will be in attendance, and Ms Ranger said: “We need as many people to show support as possible to ensure that we can get this project moving.”

The Debenhams building has been lying empty since the business closed in 2020, although Starlow Investments was granted permission to build flats in its two upper floors earlier this year.

Ms Ranger harbours ambitions of creating something similar to the Afflecks site in Manchester, where 60 small shops operate under one roof at any given time.