Debenhams: New era for closed Sheffield department store must wait after auction

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One of Sheffield’s most famous buildings will have to wait to be revived after it failed to sell at auction.

Debenhams on The Moor was offered with a guide price of £850,000 in an online auction by Allsop. But it was listed as ‘unsold’ on the firm’s website following the event.

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It comes after years of attempts by owner, London-based MHA, to do something with it.

The old Debenhams on The Moor failed to sell.The old Debenhams on The Moor failed to sell.
The old Debenhams on The Moor failed to sell. | National World

The firm snapped up the dilapidated five-storey building for a bargain £1.5m in March 2021 after the historic retail chain went bust.

It went under the hammer on Tuesday, September 24.

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A sales brochure stated Sheffield City Council indicated it supports plans to replace the building with 22 and 34-storey towers ‘for mixed use retail, food and beverage, leisure, residential, office, hotel and public realm’.

But it wasn’t enough to tempt prospective buyers.

MHA London had wanted to reopen it as a second-hand market and space for makers and craftspeople. 

The firm went into liquidation in July last year, according to Companies House.

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Documents lodged by Moorfields insolvency specialists state it had £23.5m of liabilities including £18m of inter-company loans. The sole director is Mohamad Hossein Abedinzadeh.

Last month the contents of the building were sold at auction in 324 lots including shelves, tills, clothes rails, mannequins and a massage table.

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