New future for landmark Gloucester building

The iconic Debenhams building in Gloucester city centre is set to become a new campus for teaching, learning and community partnerships after it was bought by the University of Gloucestershire.The University of Gloucestershire has purchased the Debenhams building in a move which will accommodate plans for growth in teaching and learning, and provide a major boost to regeneration and post-Covid recovery in the historic centre of the city of Gloucester.The university intends to fully refurbish the 1930s Art Deco building, offering about 215,000 sq ft of space on five floors. This will createmodern spaces for teaching and learning for students and staff, accommodating the university’s plans to expand the scale and range of its higher education programmes.Options for working with local partners will also be explored with the potential to allocate part of the ground floor space for dual-use facilities for the community and the university.The redevelopment of the building will represent a further big step forward in the wider regeneration of that part of the city of Gloucester. Kings Square is currently being redeveloped by the city council.’The Forum’ digital quarter development, being led by Gloucester City Council in partnership with Reef Group, will create a mixed-use new build development of office, hotel and residential space close by. The adjacent Kings House is being repurposed as a cultural hub, and new student accommodation was recently completed nearby at Blackfriars.The university hopes that phase one of the project could open as early as September 2023, subject to statutory approvals.