{"id":1044,"date":"2025-03-18T14:52:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T15:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2025-03-18T23:11:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T23:11:37","slug":"inside-the-ghost-shopping-centre-with-empty-units-from-big-brand-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/inside-the-ghost-shopping-centre-with-empty-units-from-big-brand-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the \u2018ghost\u2019 shopping centre with empty units from big brand names"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"Ghost\t<\/div>
The Festival Park shopping centre in Ebbw Vale, Wales, used to house big brand names like M&S, Nike, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Costa and Gap (Picture: Wales News Service)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is no secret that the UK\u2019s high streets and shopping centres are suffering right now<\/a> with many stores shutting shop.<\/p>\n

This is no different for the Festival Park shopping centre in Ebbw Vale, Wales, which is almost a microcosm for the state of our high street<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n

The shopping centre has been unused for several years and right at the end, only one Sports Direct shop remained.<\/p>\n

Other big brand names that left the park included M&S, Nike, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Costa and Gap.<\/p>\n

Opened in 1992 for \u00a318million by then Prince Charles<\/a>, Dannii Minogue and Catherine Zeta Jones, the centre is a shadow of its former self.<\/p>\n

The shopping centre was originally built with taxpayers money as part of the Conservative government\u2019s national garden festivals, which involved developing derelict land in struggling areas.<\/p>\n

It was sold to Mercia Real Estate Ltd in 2021 and there are now plans to transform the site into an industrial park.<\/p>\n

It is the job of property consultancy Knight Frank to attract tenants to the completed centre.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t<\/div>
The centre is now a shadow of its former self after stores closed up shop (Picture: Wales News Service)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n\t\t\"Ghost\t<\/div>
The Festival Park is located in Ebbw Vale, Wales (Picture: Metro)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new site is set to include a gym operator and a nursery for the occupiers of the units and residents in the area.<\/p>\n

Neil Francis, head of Knight Frank\u2019s industrial and logistics division in Wales, said: \u2018The imaginative redevelopment of the Festival Park site, coupled with a willingness by the owners to be able to agree leases within a matter of weeks, will be an attractive proposition to local and national businesses.\u2019<\/p>\n

Samuel Clark, chief executive officer of Mercia Real Estate, added: \u2018We are confident that the much-needed redevelopment of Festival Park will be an attractive proposition to new and existing businesses, and will provide a range of unit sizes to enable successful small businesses to expand over time without ever needing to leave the site to find larger premises.\u2019<\/p>\n

At the time of the shopping centre closure, shopper Megan Woods, 59, said: \u2018It was amazing then \u2013 long queues to get in and a real buzz. It has its own fairground and even a talking moving clock. But now it is more like a zombie-land with no one here.<\/p>\n

\u2018Something has gone very wrong somewhere that all that investment of taxpayers money was wasted. It was getting bad before the pandemic but now it is just ridiculous.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t<\/div>
A Sports Direct store was the only shop left open before the centre closed (Picture: Wales News Service)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\t\t\t<\/div>
The site is set to be turned into an industrial park (Picture: Wales News Service)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Locals blamed lack of investment and planning.<\/p>\n

Shop owner Kim Maguire moved out of the shopping centre to the high street \u2013 even though her John Jenkins gift shop was one of the original stores on the site.<\/p>\n

She said: \u2018I still regularly hear from customers about how much they miss Festival Park though, and how shocked they all are at what has happened to it over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u2018It still feels quite surreal to be honest, even now a year down the line.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was a sad day when it closed for me as a business and for the community as a whole. Everyone who worked there misses it as well, though we are now in a larger shop further towards the centre of town.\u2019<\/p>\n

Kelvin Morgan once ran a fresh fruit and veg shop at the centre and said: \u2018It used to be so beautiful over there with all the flower gardens and shops so to see it as it is now is very sad.<\/p>\n

\u2018I even remember the excitement when it opened as the Garden Festival, and you used to have hundreds of people over there when it first changed to a shopping centre after that.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Festival Park shopping centre in Ebbw Vale, Wales, used to house big brand names like M&S, Nike, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Costa and Gap (Picture: Wales News Service) It is no secret that the UK\u2019s high streets and shopping centres are suffering right now with many stores shutting shop. This is no different for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1052,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions\/1052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}