Manchester’s Afflecks Palace to Close?

According to news reports, Manchester’s beloved alternative shopping centre could close within days.

Since it opened in 1982, Afflecks Palace has been renowned as the best place in Manchester to buy curios, records and vintage clothing. It attracted a number of quirky, small stalls and established a worldwide reputation.

Rumours of the shopping centre’s uncertain future first surfaced last February. They began to circulate after Afflecks Palace management sent a letter to traders, which warned that a rise in the building’s rent was making it ‘unviable’ to keep the centre open. It was revealed that Bruntwood, the owners of the building, were proposing increases in rent and service charges at Afflecks Palace, as well as asking management to spend around £500,000 on improvements to the run-down building.

It was feared these demands signalled that Bruntwood were trying to drive out traders in a bid to turn the building into lucrative city-centre properties. However, Bruntwood have denied this claim and said that they’ve offered Afflecks Palace management a new lease. They also told a local journalist that they were `focused on finding a solution' to the problem.

With neither party admitting fault, negotiations to save Afflecks Palace have been stalled. However, 7,000 protesters have registered their support for the legendary shopping centre on an internet-based petition. One of the protesters, Patsy Leck, wrote: "Afflecks has become part of our heritage. I have been going there since it opened and now my teenage daughter and her friends are regular shoppers. It's a culture in itself."

If negotiations cannot be reached, it is thought that traders will have to leave the building by January 26. The 25-year lease on the building expired in June and it has been operating on a rolling contract since then.

Affleck’s Palace management are thought to want to keep the centre open, although they said: "We have to consider whether it's commercially viable and we can afford to stay open."

Manchester’s Councillor Pat Karney is now acting as a mediator between Bruntwood and the Afflecks Palace management team in an attempt to keep to shopping centre open. He said: "For a whole variety of reasons the council wants Afflecks to continue. We want the traders to continue in there, we want the value that it brings to Manchester - it's a great advert for the city and brings people to Manchester."

Sources:

Manchester Online

Manchester Online

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