Debenhams: Green light for new food hall and 'makers market' in former Sheffield department store

The shop on The Moor will offer space to craftspeople through concessions lasting as little as a week or up to a year, according to property agent Anthony Lorenz, representing owner, London firm MHA.

The plan is to move ahead “very quickly” he added, with activity in the building starting in “about a month”. Signs will go up in the windows advertising concessions, he added. Meanwhile, plans for a trendy food hall will be welcomed as a way of attracting shoppers.

It comes in the same week Sheffield City Council announced a preferred bidder for the John Lewis building and new images were released of huge and colourful flowerbeds on Fargate after a £15m revamp, which is set to complete next year.

Debenhams on The Moor closed when the historic chain went bust in 2021. MHA spent a year trying to let it before putting it up for sale. Following several false dawns, it developed the idea of a ‘person-to-person’ to store selling items by local makers.

Now the plan is going ahead as a joint venture between MHA and a financier, Mr Lorenz said. In April he said if the makers' market idea was successful, the first floor could reopen, possibly selling second hand furniture.

He said then: “We think the maths of a person-to-person store letting will work....It’s not about using brands, because they are in shopping centres already.”

Debenhams in Meadowhall remains closed.