A former Odeon cinema at The Stack in Dundee is set to be demolished to make way for a new Home Bargains shop.
The budget retailer’s owner has received planning permission to knock down the old picture house at the retail park.
The building has been empty since the cinema shut in 2001.
Retailer moving to bigger unit
The existing Home Bargains store at the park will be vacated, with the budget retailer moving into a bigger unit on the old cinema site.
Owner TJ Morris says the development will create 50 full-time equivalent jobs and help to generate millions of pounds for the local economy.
An outdoor garden centre, branded Garden World, will be part of the development – while there are also plans for a cafe inside.
The Stack was formerly home to a range of leisure venues, including the cinema, a bowling alley and nightclub.
But the park now hosts retailers including Aldi, Smyths and The Range, along with Buzz Bingo.
In a statement, TJ Morris says that since buying it more than a decade ago, it has helped transform The Stack from an “almost completely vacant leisure park into a successful retail and leisure destination for the local community and beyond”.
Shop can ‘co-exist’ with other retail centres
The firm claims the development will “complement Lochee town centre”.
The statement added: “The new Home Bargains unit is capable of co-existing with the city and district centres without undermining their vitality and viability and the proposals will meet both qualitative and quantitative deficiencies which cannot be met within the city or district centres.”
Dundee City Council has approved the plans, subject to 17 conditions.
The store will not be able to sell restricted goods such as DIY items, carpets, jewellery, silverware, furniture or electrical items.
TJ Morris will also have to pay towards a new pedestrian crossing on Harefield Road.
A timescale for the work has yet to be confirmed, and no new retailer has yet been identified to take over the existing Home Bargains unit.
The outlet will be the second major Home Bargains to be built in Dundee in the coming months, with work nearing completion on an outlet at Myrekirk.
The firm also has shops at Kingsway East Retail Park and in the Wellgate shopping centre.
The former Odeon was previously eyed up for a Ryze trampoline park before the firm eventually moved into a site on Old Glamis Road.
