London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Carmarthen: What do you do with an empty department store?

Carmarthen: What do you do with an empty department store?

In 2010, Carmarthen welcomed a new £74m flagship Debenhams store in the St Catherine's Walk shopping centre.

Just 11 years later - last May - it closed, leaving a 6,000 sq m void in the centre of the town.

But after securing a total of £18.5m in funding, the old shop will be turned into a centre for the council, health board and cultural services.

Wales' Deputy Climate Change Minister, Lee Waters, said the move was "absolutely the right idea".

Mr Waters said out-of-town shopping, supermarkets, online shopping and the Covid pandemic had created a "cocktail" for town centres to struggle.

According to Audit Wales, one in seven shops in the country were empty, and Mr Waters said town centres needed to become places where people "meet, play, work and where we do a whole range of accessing services".

The old Debenhams store will become the Carmarthen Hwb (Hub) and will house a gym, some of the county's museum collection and a welcome centre for tourists.

It is hoped work will be completed by spring 2024.

The store was spread over 6,000 sq m, meaning there is plenty of space for several different uses in future


A total of £15m of funding has come from the UK government, with a further £3.5m from Carmarthenshire council.

Emlyn Dole, the council's leader, said he hoped the new centre would increase footfall as big shops "were not coming back".

Dr Edward Jones, an economics lecturer at Bangor University, said changes to the high street had been accelerated by the Covid pandemic.

He said: "It's going to be a very different high street to what we're used to.

"Even before the pandemic, we saw them [large chain stores] dwindling and during the pandemic, that accelerated.

"There is a place for them, but that's more likely to be on the outskirts of towns. That's why we have this challenge about what do with our high streets, and getting people back in to the high street."

Rhian Matthews, of Hywel Dda health board, says a range of clinics could be run from the new centre


The project is being developed in partnership with Hywel Dda health board and University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD).

The health board's Rhian Matthews said the new centre could be used for outpatient clinics.

She said the aim was to provide "a range of clinics" at the Hwb, where a lifelong learning centre is also planned.

Gwilym Dyfri Jones, provost of UWTSD, said: "We're an anchor institution in the town of Carmarthen and we should be here right at the centre of town.

"We can support the economic, cultural and social regeneration of the town. We'd like to work with the local business community in particular to ensure that the local population have the relevant skills to enable the town to grow during this post-Covid period."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×