The thorny issue of protecting city centre shops from peripheral retail parks has resurfaced with Next’s £5.2 million project for Dundee’s Kingsway West.
It is an attractive offer. A massive investment by a major retailer with the incentive of creating 125 new jobs to enhance the site’s status as a regional shopping destination.
There is a catch a price to be paid by the city council if it grants the application.
Next would close one of its two stores in the city centre and that was a problem for the local authority the last time the retail giant attempted such a project.
Back in 2014 the council, supported by the Scottish Government, said no to Next because of fears the plan would damage Dundee’s city and district retail centres.
Rebuffed, Next took that project 30 miles down the A92 to the Fife Retail Park in Kirkcaldy instead.
Similar circumstances surround the latest application, and there’s no saying Next won’t do the same thing if the council rejects it again.
Kingsway West’s owners have signalled that possibility by saying that if major retailers cannot move into the places they want in Dundee, they will go elsewhere.
For the latest application, on the plus side Next would boost its workforce in Dundee from 133 to 258.
Like last time the Gallagher store would close, but Next is confident it can sell on that lease to another retailer.
Next would also close its smaller Kingsway West store but all staff from there, and from Gallagher, would transfer to the new extended home, garden centre, fashion and coffee shop offering.
The new large format store will have a contemporary environment and architecture which Next thinks will be an asset.
The firm has also pledged to keep open its store in the Overgate Centre until 2024, so it is maintaining a presence in the city centre.
The council may be in difficulty if it repeats its 2014 argument.
Tesco is already selling clothes in its Kingsway West store and over a greater area than Next and wants to allocate that market.
The council is right to want to protect its city centre and make it a vibrant place for people to visit.
Its ambitions to achieve that goal are based on the V&A Museum on the waterfront, an £81 million project aimed at revitalising the city’s economy.
The council hopes new businesses will flock to the city centre to capitalise on Dundee’s heightened status as a major visitor magnet.
Hopefully the dream will be fulfilled and new traders will clamour to come in enough of them to make up for the loss of one small Next store?
Of course a council must manage its retail provision to ensure shopping can take place the way it wants.
But experience tells us that successful retailing is about what consumers want, and consumers want to visit retail parks.
Is this not a strong reason for granting the new Next project, given the benefits it will bring?