Location | Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England |
---|---|
Coordinates | 52°31′18″N1°28′10″W / 52.5218°N 1.4695°W Coordinates: 52°31′18″N1°28′10″W / 52.5218°N 1.4695°W |
Address | Chapel Street [1] |
Opening date | 2005 |
Management | Bank of Ireland |
Owner | M&M/ICG-Longbow [2] |
No. of stores and services | 29 [3] |
Total retail floor area | 185,000 square feet (17,200 m2) [4] |
No. of floors | 2 |
Parking | Car park (520 parking spaces) [5] |
Website | ropewalknuneaton |
The Ropewalk Shopping Centre is a shopping centre in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. It has a glass roof (which is not connected to the building), two floors retail stores, including high street retailers, and also a car park.
The Ropewalk Shopping Centre started life as the Queens Arcade. [6] For many years, the Queens Arcade was ageing and needed replacing, with many store units lying vacant or occupied by small, independent businesses.
In 2001, Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council decided to replace the arcade with a new shopping centre. An early design of a shopping centre with three floors, a bowling alley and a cinema was rejected by the Council, who in turn accepted a plan to build a Cinema and Bowling Alley in Bermuda Park, Nuneaton.
However, in 2003 and another redesign to the plan, a new scheme was submitted and received planning consent from the council. It included the plan to demolish the Queens Arcade for an all new modern shopping centre to be erected on land which was covered by the Queens Arcade and the Dugdale Car Parks and see the Shopping Centre slicing Dugdale Street in half. The project cost £60 million and was constructed between 2004 and 2005. The Main Shopping Centre also saw a 5 Storey 500 car parking spaces Car Park built next to it which is run by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, this was built first to compensate the loss of car parking spaces due to the Shopping Centre's construction.
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council owns the site that the Centre was built on and has the site leased out for 150 years. [7]
The centre has now been trading since 1 September 2005. [8] One major contract, which the Ropewalk helped bring to Nuneaton, was the arrival of American coffee giant Starbucks. [9] The coffeehouse opened its outlet (next to Marks and Spencer) on 4 June 2007. However, its tenure was short-lived and Starbucks left Nuneaton in 2009. [10]
In 2008 and 2009, The Ropewalk lost main business as the recession took hold, with Woolworths and Barratt Shoes closing up their stores, Blue Inc took over Barratt's Unit but the Woolworths Store was left empty.
In January 2010, the Bank of Ireland took control of the shopping Centre after previous owners called Broadway Capital owned by Irish Investor and Property Developer John McCann were liquidated with debts of up to £64 million, most of that money was owed to the BOI. BTW Shields was appointed by the Bank to run the Shopping Centre on its behalf, however this new management has stressed that the Shopping Centre is open for business as usual. The Bank of Ireland said they will run the Shopping Centre for the moment before selling it off.
In October 2010, the former Woolworths unit was taken over by TJ Hughes, who created 113 jobs for the town, [11] which seen the Council spend £2.6 million on renovating the unit and building a lift and escalators for the retailer. [12]
In August 2011, TJ Hughes had given up the former Woolworths unit. [13] The space was later taken on by 99p Stores [14] but this became a Poundland when the companies merged. [15] [16]
On 5 October 2017, TJ Hughes returned to Nuneaton, but this time inside of the Ropewalk, occupying the former BHS premises. [17] They remained in this unit until they left in 2020. [18]
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Arena Park Shopping Centre is a shopping park in Coventry, England. It is located in the north of the city and adjacent to the boundary with the Nuneaton and Bedworth district of Warwickshire. It was constructed at the same time as the neighbouring Coventry Building Society Arena, from which it takes its name. It was built upon the site of the former Foleshill Gasworks which encompassed the area of the Shopping Centre and the arena. It is owned by Tesco Stores Limited. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as Arena Shopping Park.
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The 2021 Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council election was held on 6 May 2021 as part of the 2021 United Kingdom local elections and alongside elections for Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner. Half of the borough council seats were up for election and the results provided the Conservative Party with a majority on the council, with the party winning all but two seats up for election.
The Ritz Cinema is a Grade-II listed art-deco former cinema located on Abbey Street, Nuneaton. It was opened on 23 July 1937, originally for the Union Cinemas circuit, however, in October of the same year, ABC Cinemas would take over the building. The Ritz would stop showing films in 1984. After being used as a cinema, the building would be converted to a bingo hall, and trade as such until its closure.
The 2022 Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council election was held on 5 May 2022 to elect members of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council. Seventeen seats of the thirty-four seats on the council were elected, as part of the wider 2022 local elections.
Vehicles were allowed to travel through the town centre, the indoor market was buzzing and the Queens Arcade Shopping Centre stood proudly.
The Ropewalk site is owned by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and is let on a 150-year lease.
The massive multi-million pound shopping centre - Ropewalk, in Nuneaton - has been in development since early 2003. It will officially open on September 1, creating 350 jobs and housing 30 big-name stores.
One town which has suffered a wave of store closures is Nuneaton, which just six years ago was revelling in the arrival of American coffee giant Starbucks – attracted in part by the newly built Ropewalk Shopping Centre.
A spokesperson for the company said: “Following a review of a small number of UK stores, we can confirm with regret that we have closed our coffeehouse in Nuneaton in an effort to ensure we have a strong foundation to support our long-term goals.
The big brand discount retailer will officially launch its brand new 24,000 sq ft store – which is based in the former Woolworths shop on Queen’s Road
It spent £2.6m on refurbishing the building when Woolworths closed, including fitting escalators and a lift to entice TJ Hughes to move in.
MORE than 50 jobs are to go with the closure of Coventry discount store TJ Hughes this weekend. Staff were “very upset” after being told the devastating news on Tuesday, although it was not made public until yesterday. The big budget retailer went into administration in June and 31 UK stores have already closed, including Nuneaton.
The firm remained in town until 2011, then TJ Hughes left and 99p Stores moved in.
Then when 99p Stores was taken over by Poundland, it became a Poundland and the infamous one pound rent deal was struck with the borough council.
TJ Hughes is set to open in the former BHS store in the Ropewalk Shopping Centre on Thursday, October 5 - and marks its return to town after leaving six years ago.