THE remaining empty premises in a York city centre street are set to reopen soon as retailer confidence returns to the city, a property consultant has revealed.

Andrew Hedley, of Blacks Property Consultants, said interest had surged in an empty unit at 3 Colliergate at the end of January and was now ‘under offer’ to a well-established, non-food retailer from the Midlands, which he had last taken around York's shops pre-pandemic.

"Expansion plans to the north are now off ‘hold’ and the deal is with lawyers, well in time for a spring opening," he said.

He said that with a home office products shop and a hair/beauty salon having opened recently, and the street’s only other empty unit hopefully opening soon as a restaurant, Colliergate would soon be back to full occupancy, with an interesting balance of food, drink and traditional retail uses, appealing to both locals and visitors.

"What a great mix now for post-Covid days," he said. "You can post a letter/parcel in the post office, get a vacuum cleaner at Blackwell & Denton, something for the home at Barnitts, something for the new home worker at Avorium, a healthy lunch of vegetarian and health foods at Tullivers and beauty and hair for the image conscious at Saskia & Co."

He said the prospective tenant had concluded Colliergate was a 'friendly little street,' and there were a series of well-refurbished units during Covid, with owners clearly having taken a long term view and been rewarded by a nice variety of tenants, some having relocated from bigger or smaller units and others being new businesses.

"One property needed change of use permission to go from shop to beauty but the prospective tenant, contractors, City of York Council's planning department, the council leader and MPs all played their part in helping us to get rapid lets.

"Our council leader and MPs have even helped us in chasing to get revised rateable values quickly where premises have been split. Thank you again to them."

|He said the picture was also improving in other city centre streets where premises had been lying empty, with the Naked Deli just about to open in the building next to Marks & Spencers in Parliament Street, and a convenience store having opened in Church Street and a travel agency in Goodramgate.

"Not only has there been a pleasing variety of uses but also now inquiries from existing retailers looking for larger premises," he said. "This is a very pleasing feature and suggests to us that the usual merry-go-round across the retail spectrum is gaining momentum

"Retailer confidence from across the country is obviously back and deals are happening, large and small."