Prospect Shopping Centre is home to brands such as B&M, Poundland, WHSmith, Lush and Greggs. However, it has suffered from a lack of investment over recent years.
Mr Iqbal said Z&F Properties will spend around £1m in the first year of ownership making upgrades and repairs. Improvements have already been made to the shopping centre’s café and car park.
“The Prospect Centre has a very, very strong and loyal following. People in Hull have grown up with it and want to see it succeed,” said Mr Iqbal.
“In the first three-and-a-half months we’ve owned it, six of the traders have re-signed their leases, which is fantastic and very promising.
“We currently have four vacant units inside and we’re hoping to get some good news soon on one of the larger ones.
“There’s a lot to be positive about.”
The Hull Story comment
We welcome the plans to transform Prospect Shopping Centre into a “leisure destination”.
New owner Zahid Iqbal has revealed his vision for the centre, including a new food court on the outside to draw people into the city centre.
There’s no doubt both the shopping centre and Hull city centre more generally need a boost.
The loss of major high street stores such as Debenhams, House of Frasier and Marks & Spencer over the years has clearly had a hugely detrimental impact on footfall – as it has in other cities across the UK.
And Hull’s city centre night-time economy – or lack of – has been of concern for some time now too.
Hammonds of Hull appeared to be a great idea, providing an eclectic retail and leisure offer under one roof in the old House of Fraiser store.
But, despite opening in a blaze of publicity in December 2021, it closed just 15 months later following dwindling footfall.
A common complaint was that it was overpriced.
Mr Iqbal isn’t set to make the same mistake with Prospect Shopping Centre.
In outlining his plans to transform unoccupied outward-facing units along Prospect Street and Brook Street into the new food court, he was keen to stress the offer needs to be affordable, as well as good quality.
Those unoccupied units have been a depressing reminder of the economically challenging times we’re in, as have others across the city.
So, it will be a welcome site to see new eateries move in and hopefully entice people back in.
We wish Mr Iqbal well with his plans and hope they are a huge success.
Hull needs them to be.