AMBITIOUS plans to revitalise Kendal's main shopping centre were revealed yesterday (September 20) by the mall's new owners.

Praxis, a commercial property investor with a £1bn portfolio, has secured the future of Westmorland Shopping Centre after handing over £7.1million.

Now, the company wants to 'rehabilitate' the centre, first focusing its attention on breathing new life into the empty shops of the first floor.

"We are very excited about this," said managing director Gary Roberts. "We see a real opportunity to rehabilitate and transform the centre back into what it was in the nineties and early noughties."

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He said that they wanted to talk to retailers, find out what they wanted and hopefully 'replace the footfall that was lost when Currys and Evans vacated'.

"Our vision at the moment is to focus on the first floor where the majority of vacancies are," he said. "Reconfigure that unit block so to provide some fit for purpose units that will be attractive to a long list of brands."

Mr Roberts added that on top of general maintenance work, up to a 'seven digit figure' could be invested into the centre.

"The fact of the matter is we have been able to buy this at a level where it makes sense to invest," he said. "We have the capacity to invest some money into this and still see a return."

The future of the Stricklandgate shopping centre, which houses more than 30 retailers as well as Kendal's indoor market, was thrown into doubt in 2015.

BDO took control of the asset after it was announced that Ethel Austin Properties (Kendal), which bought the centre in 2002 for almost £15million, had entered administration.

Now, Praxis, whose portfolio includes retail shopping centres in Salford, Leeds, Preston, Peterlee and Plymstock, hopes to attract new brands to the 'attractive and thriving town'.

"We are still in early stages of formulating exactly what we are going to do," Mr Roberts told the Gazette. "We have made some progress. We exchanged about four weeks ago and have already engaged with lots of retailers, some of them who have looked at the shopping centre before but who have not committed to taking occupation as a result of what their needs are in terms of size and place."

The news has been well received by South Lakeland District Council's portfolio holder for the economy Councillor Graham Vincent.

"We welcome the news that the shopping centre has been taken over by a company that has an understanding of the challenges of the current retail market and experience in managing shopping centres," he said.

“We have already arranged a meeting with the new owners and look forward to hearing about their plans. This represents an exciting opportunity for Kendal.

“We are pleased to note that the new owners recognise that the town is thriving and are talking about investment and attracting new retailers, which fits with our own commitment to do all we can to help our towns and villages to succeed commercially.’’

South Lakeland District Council leases both the indoor market hall and the multi-storey car park from the shopping centre.

Manager of Kendal's Business Improvement District Sarah Williams also said that the news was 'amazing'.

"Obviously we think it's amazing that it's finally been bought and we hope they will get the investment that they need to get the retail spaces filled," she said.

"We need it to be full of fantastic shops and I think hopefully with this sale going ahead the directors will get that support and they will end up filling those empty retail units."

Although Mr Roberts said it was 'too early' to say which retailers would be coming to Kendal, he did suggest that they might include convenience shopping brands, fashion brands and potentially some outdoor shops that did not already have a presence in the town.

He was also keen to point out that it was about creating a shopping centre for the 'community' and the local area rather than focusing on tourists.

"It is the central fulcrum in the local catchment and the retailers that go in there will be there to serve that catchment rather than the tourist trade," he said, adding that he hoped they would be able to offer shoppers more choice.

He also said that he anticipated that temporary jobs would be created as work on the centre got under way and that new retailers would 'undoubtedly' be looking for staff.

"Fundamentally this is convenience shopping.," Mr Roberts said. "It's there for the community.

"The vision is to rehabilitate the shopping centre so it becomes vibrant again."